Around Westhampton

Renowned as part of the Hamptons, the area known today as Westhampton, Westhampton Beach, Quiogue, and West Hampton Dunes was named Catchaponack by the Algonquin tribes who lived in the area when the English sheepherders arrived in the 1660s. A land of breathtakingly beautiful beaches and bays situated on the south shore of Long Island, just 65 miles east of New York City, Westhampton has evolved from an agricultural and fishing village to a summer vacation resort to a year-round oceanfront community. Fortune 500 chief executive officers and celebrities, such as Cary Grant, Charles Addams, and Marvin Hamlisch, have lived quietly amid locals. Together they have survived hurricanes, outlasted raucous night clubs, rebuilt eroded dunes, and fought off real estate developers. Around Westhampton depicts how an area blessed with uncommon physical beauty has managed to remain unspoiled in the face of natural disasters and international fame.

WESTHAMPTON: Golden Days and Memories for a Lifetime is Mansfield’s seventh book. Its preface begins with, “Westhampton is in my blood.” In some 300 pages the author makes his case by telling sometimes hilarious tales of family, friends and situations. He calls his “life experiences in Westhampton...the most joyful in my nearly four score years. They have provided clear and warm memories all the way from childhood to the present day, a span of more than 76 years. The richness of these experiences is inestimable but oh so gratifying, as they were golden days and memories for a lifetime.” In his epilogue Mansfield writes: “An online dictionary defines nostalgia as ‘a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.’ To me these words apply perfectly to my life and times in Westhampton.” It is a funny, story-telling book.

Pictorial history of golf on Long Island, from the earliest country clubs to public courses of note. When the European sport of golf found its way to Long Island and took root in the Hamptons at Shinnecock Hills in 1891, its journey across the Atlantic served as the opening drive of a recreational era that now spans three centuries. Home to more than 130 golf courses, the area boasts prestigious American clubs overlooking picturesque Atlantic bays and inlets, along with public layouts climbing and descending the region's sloping terrain. Long Island is home to the most popular municipal golf facility in the country, the centerpiece of which is Bethpage Black, "the People's Country Club." Celebrated architects like A.W. Tillinghast, Devereux Emmet, Seth Raynor, and C.B. Macdonald built many of Long Island's famous courses, which have challenged the brightest of golf's stars. International tournaments and star-studded exhibitions have all been decided on Long Island turf, helping it grow into one of the world's most prominent golf settings.

Settled in 1640 by a group of Puritans from Massachusetts, Southampton, NY, changed very little until the railroad line from New York City reached the village in 1870. Then, with daily trains traveling east, wealthy New Yorkers were amazed to discover a bucolic backwater just hours away. By the turn of the century, Southampton was ranked among the most fashionable resorts on the East Coast. Over 200 photographs, many rare and previously unpublished, illustrate the changes that came to agrarian Southampton as successive waves of summer residents arrived, first to stay in farmhouses refurbished as boarding houses, then building their own sprawling summer "cottages." Drawn from local historical archives and private collections, these images will show how small-town life continued over the years in a place now world-renowned for its exclusive clubs, grand mansions, and celebrity residents.

Long Island has one of the most vibrant and largest Jewish communities in the nation. After World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jewish soldiers returned from war looking for a life in the suburbs and synagogues to join, but the demand exceeded the supply. In 1946, Rabbi Elias Solomon called a meeting of Conservative rabbis from Manhattan to map out a plan to build a synagogue at ever South Shore Long Island Railroad stop, from Valley Stream to Patchogue. Central Synagogue of Nassau County and Beth El in Great Neck both grew to more than 1000 families as Reform Judaism took hold, and the growth of the Chabad movement in recent decades as spurred an increase of Orthodox Judaism. Author Ira Poliakoff catalogues the history of synagogues and congregations that have shaped Long Island's past and present.

More than 150 historical photographs, many taken by survivors of the storm, capture the devastating impact of the 1938 hurricane on the Hamptons area of Long Island. Original.

The only definitive biography of the legendary Warren Beatty is penned by thecritically acclaimed author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Natasha."