These are the books that we believe every Hamptons home library should boast. Some of them are gorgeously illustrated coffee table books, some, well, not so much. But we can recommend each as a fun gift during the holiday season.
And since you ask, yes, we personally own each of them. (Notice we didn't say "read." But we'll make it to page 10 of The Hamptons aaaaany day now.)
Andrew Geller: Deconstructed: Artist and Architect by Jake Gorst. Over a career that lasted more than fifty years, Andrew Geller—architect, artist, and designer—quietly produced a large and culturally significant body of work, much of which can be found in the Hamptons.
Dinner with Jackson Pollock by Robin Lea. Jackson Pollock the artist needs no introduction—but perhaps lesser known is Jackson Pollock the gardener, baker, and dinner-party host. This interesting and beautiful volume gathers together Pollock family recipes.
Houses of the Hamptons, 1880-1930 (Architecture of Leisure), by Gary Lawrance and Anne Surchin, is a gorgeously illustrated and fascinating look at great estates past and present.
Origins of the Past: The Story of Montauk and Gardiner's Island, by John Strong, Gaynell Stone, Rev. Samson Occum, Lynn Ceci, Elizabeth Shapiro Pena, Francis Jennings, Lion Gardner, David Goddard, Tom Twomey, is a collection of twenty-five articles from authoritative sources regarding the history of Gardiner's Island and Montauk.
Revealing the Past by Norton Daniels, Sherrill Foster, Mac Griswold, Hugh King, and Tom Twomey, brings together for the first time the writings of four contemporary local historians.
Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons, by Steven Gaines offers an eccentric cast of characters: semicloseted gay men, half-cracked Mayflower descendants going to seed, and Philistines blemishing the scenery with their terrible taste.
The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time, by Preston B. Nichols, Peter Moon, claims to chronicle the most amazing and secretive research project in recorded history. Riiiight.
Amagansett by Mark Mills is a great mystery-thriller set in the late 1940s in the titular town.
Weekend Utopia: Modern Living in the Hamptons by Alastair Gordon. See how, from the avant-garde influence of Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Willem de Kooning, to the high modernism of Le Corbusier, Philip Johnson, and Richard Meier, new ideas about art, architecture, and modern living transformed the Hamptons.
The Hamptons, by Charles Rigdon, is a fun potboiler from 1979 featuring Tom Selleck look alikes. Here's the back cover for the intrigued:
Happy holidays!
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