Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons Book

Destined to be a coast-to-coast major trade paperback bestseller in the summer of 1999. Steven Gaines is a bestselling storyteller with a special gift for capturing social nuance, colourful detail, and quirks of character. Here are a few examples: A well-to-do former ballet dancer arrested for stealing his neighbors furniture, and showered with thank-you notes from his victims, who admired his skills at refinishing; the aunt and cousin of a First Lady, who for many years inhabited a Gothic mansion with twenty-eight cats (and no litter box); a locally prominent family who played host to Captain Kidd in 1699 and still have the buried treasure to prove it; the Oscar-winning actress whose tearful performance before a local zoning board failed to secure her a permit to build a swimming pool; a self-made man of outsized appetites who realized his ambition of becoming the most powerful real estate agent in the Hamptons, and died choking on a piece of steak; the world-renowned painter who, at a black-tie dinner party, attacked his hosts piano with an ice pick; as well as many of todays Hollywood, Wall Street, and fashion and art-world potentates, all vying for a slice of land still inhabited by families that have farmed and fished the region for generations. Also available as a Time Warner AudioBook