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Title: In the Hamptons: My Fifty Years with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities
ISBN: 0307382958
Author:
Dan Rattiner
Publicate Date: 2008-05-06
Publish: 2008-05-06
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $9.27
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $8.75
Amazon Merchant Price: $16.47
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Predictably Terrific
DAN'S PAPERS are a local institution in The Hamptons, where I live myself. And, yes, there really is a Dan.
And it's Dan Rattiner who, for about the past 45 years, has made his papers great. (Actually, by now, there are just two editions, a small one for Montauk, at the extreme end of Long Island, where Dan grew up himself, and a large one that serves a widespread region.)
Though Dan was not born in The Hamptons, he did move here as a teenager, more than a half century ago. From the reminiscences in his memoir, IN THE HAMPTONS, he always had the keen eye of an observer, even when he still was an architectural student at Harvard.
Dan writes in an easy, effortless style and he appears to miss no details -- ever. Except when the subject is serious, his pieces are suffused with humor, and he does not suffer fools gracefully. Issues of DAN'S PAPERS may have as many as six, even eight, pieces that he has written.
I feel fair in saying that everyone who lives in The Hamptons -- indeed, everyone on the entire eastern end of Long Island -- loves this weekly news magazine.
So it was with great interest that most of us awaited the publication of IN THE HAMPTONS.
Knowing Dan's style, the book is everything one could expect. He effortlessly covers the long history of this area, first settled in 1639, when the Gardiner family arrived from England.
By virtue of his long tenure here, he pretty much has seen it all and he definitely remembers all that he saw.
Dan offers wonderful anecdotes about the ROLLING STONES, Bianca Jagger, Andy Warhol, the family of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the other early-arriving socialites -- Mrs. Onassis actually was born in East Hampton -- the rock stars such as Billy Joel and Paul Simon, the visitors like Bill Clinton, so many artists and writers that they have an annual charity softball game, and on and on. And on.
All of Dan's anecdotes, without exception, are fascinating, and each one is reported in Dan's literally inimitable prose.
On the other hand, in an area so rich in history and accomplishment, Dan obviously had to choose among his favorite topics to tell his story, and he had to have left out more than he could include. Lots of authors, media people, fine artists, rock stars, movie stars, billionaires, and leading classical musicians were not even mentioned.
I can't wait to read the sequel of IN THE HAMPTONS.
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2: Great stories of the East End
I've been around as long as Dan's Papers and remember in the early years Dan Rattiner had several summer papers such as the East Hampton Summer Sun. the Sag Harbor Pilot etc. The stories Dan wrote were always great and my favorite was local history. As Dan's business grew all these local summer weekly throwaways were incorporated into one paper, Dan's Papers. With the exception being I believe the Montauk Pioneer. Anyway, This new book from Dan is great. I remember alot of this stuff from the 60's and 70's, as it appeared in his paper, but he has rewritten it and it is still an enjoyable read. A book I would highly recommend to anyone. I still long for the time in the 1960's, when I could pick up a copy of the East Hampton Summer Sun at the A&P on Newtown Lane, but that of course is not possible. Thank you Dan for 48 years of pleasurable reading. P.S. Was anyone ever electrocuted for copying that local map you use to have in the back of your newspaper?
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3: Interesting, Anecdotal Book
Being a Long Islander who spents some time in the Hamptons and Montauk, I found this book interesting. Its chapters contained anecdotal stories of events and people. Nice, easy, summer read.
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