Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

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

The Hamptons, that famous string of beachside hamlets in New York State, are not just a quiet vacation spot for New England blue bloods like the duPonts and Vanderbilts. According to Steven Gaines, the author of a spate of "untold" and "true" biographies of such glitterati as Calvin Klein, they're also--surprise!--a sandbox of scandal. And who exactly has been stirring things up? Gaines centers the book on an eccentric cast of characters in Hamptons history: semicloseted gay men of fabulous wealth and Ralph Lauren taste, half-cracked Mayflower descendants going to seed, and those "Philistines," the nouveau riche, blemishing the scenery with their terrible taste. "The establishment can hold off the newcomers for only so long," explains the author. "There are always more of Them than Us." Heavily researched, the book is painstakingly detailed and unapologetically voyeuristic, full of "nine-ounce chilled Baccarat crystal stem glasses," "Chippendale sofas upholstered in Scalamandré silks," "Gucci loafers," and "fourteen-karat-gold wallpaper." It's a Champagne truffle: sinful, enticing, and pure froth at its center. --Maria Dolan Read More

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  • Product Description

    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

  • 0316309419
  • 9780316309417
  • Steven Gaines
  • 30 June 1998
  • Little, Brown and Company
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 326
  • 1st, First Edition, First Printing
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