Philistines at the Hedgerow

Starred review from June 1, 1998
Even those who have never heard of Long Island's home to the super-rich and the celebrated (Calvin and Kelly Klein, Steven Spielberg, Martha Stewart, Alec Baldwin and wife Kim Basinger, to name only a few) will find page-turning entertainment in this social history of the Hamptons. In 1635, Lion Gardiner made a pact with Wyandanch, the great sachem of the Montauk, to keep the marauding Connecticut Pequots from infiltrating Long Island, and he received a sack of five Pequot heads to seal the agreement. From that time forward, the Hamptons have hosted a m lange of old society and new money, often an uneasy blending. At the turn of the century, wealthy artists Albert and Adele Herter built the legendary Mediterranean villa, "The Creeks"; a caretaker poled Adele about Georgica Pond to visit friends in a gondola bought from poet Robert Browning. When operating costs depleted their fortune and Adele, without a laundress, discovered that it took an hour to iron her nightgown, she decided to sleep in her bloomers. In 1990, billionaire Ronald Perlman purchased The Creeks for the bargain price of $12.5 million. In the booming 1980s, to own property in the Hamptons was the signal that one had arrived; it was said that "if you have to work on Fridays in the summer or be back in the office on Monday morning, you're not successful enough to live there." Gaines (Obsession, a biography of Calvin Klein) depicts a fabulous cast of real-life characters, both high and low. More fun than most fiction, this is a terrific summer--or anytime--read. Photos not seen by PW.

June 15, 1998
Gaines (Obsession: The Life and Times of Calvin Klein, LJ 3/15/94) has produced a fascinating description of the eccentricities of the wealthy homeowners and renters of the exclusive summer homes in the Hamptons. Filled with delicious details and bizarre situations, this is the ultimate gossip book. Highlights include accounts of a man arrested for putting pumpkins outside his store, a real estate magnate whose whole life turned out to be a lie, and a scandalous nude bathing pool. Gaines meticulously explicates the players and the contexts of the feuds and political battles that thrived in the rarefied air of the wealthy, making this a book that can be enjoyed without knowledge of the environment or the social pedigrees of those involved. Recommended for public libraries. [For another view of the Hamptons, see Peter Fearon's Hamptons Babylon, reviewed above.--Ed.]--Alison Hopkins, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, NY