Long before the Hamptons became famous for its posh parties, paparazzi, and glitterati, it was a sleepy backwater of fishing villages and potato farms, literary luminaries and local eccentrics. As the editor and publisher of the area’s popular free newspaper, Dan’s Papers, Dan Rattiner, has been covering the daily triumphs, community intrigues, and larger-than-life personalities for nearly fifty years. A colorful insider’s account of life, love, scandal, and celebrity, In the Hamptons is an intimate portrait of a place and the people who formed and transformed it, from former residents like Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning, colorful locals like bar owner Bobby Van and shark fisherman Frank Mundus (who the character Quinn from Jaws was based on), and literary figures like John Steinbeck and Truman Capote, to present-day stars like Bianca Jagger and Billy Joel. An insider who lived there—as well as a Jewish outsider amid the WASP contingent—Rattiner both revels in and is rattled by all he witnesses and records in one of the world’s most famous places. With dry wit and genuine affection, he shares a story of the Hamptons that few know, one defined by the artists, painters, fishermen, farmers, dreamers, hangers-on, celebrities, and billionaires who live and play there.

In the Hamptons: My Fifty Years with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities

Biographies & Memoirs

Rattiner, Dan

Historical

Harmony Books+

Humor & Entertainment

Crown

Award-winning writer, publisher, cartoonist, cartographer, and raconteur Dan Rattiner is the founder and editor of Dan’s Papers where he has chronicled the fables and foibles of the Hamptons for over forty years. This CD is a new volume of selected stories and essays from recent years chosen and read by Dan himself. Most document the local lore of Long Island’s famous Hamptons, but some cover topics as disparate as Einstein, the Old Testament…and even Boston! Alternatively quirky and hilarious, Dan’s stories are one-of-a-kind. This is the second collection of Dan’s stories to be released by Harbor Electronic Publishing on CD.

Dan's Greatest Hits!

Humor

Harbor Electronic Publishing

Tales of the sometimes rich, sometimes famous, but always quirky residents of one of America’s best-known summer colonies, as told by the editor and publisher of Dan’s Papers, the area’s free weekly newspaper. As the editor and publisher of Dan’s Papers, the area’s popular free newspaper, Dan Rattiner has been living in and covering the Hamptons for over fifty years, and has watched it change from a sleepy backwater of fishing villages and potato farms to a playground for the rich and famous. In this follow-up to his popular book In the Hamptons, Rattiner continues to regale us with tales of the people who live, work, and play in one of America’s best-known summer colonies, ranging from colorful locals like former East Hampton Town Supervisor Richard T. Gilmartin and marine patrol policeman Ralph George, to more well-known figures like Kurt Vonnegut, Betty Friedan, Alger Hiss, and Martha Stewart. Sometimes amused, sometimes appalled, but always observant, Rattiner tells these stories of the Hamptons as only he can tell them: with dry wit, unassuming language, and as keen an awareness of his own quirks and foibles as he is those of his fellow human beings.

In the Hamptons Too: Further Encounters With Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities

Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press

More encounters with sometimes rich, sometimes famous, but always quirky residents of the Hamptons, by the editor and publishers of Dan's Papers. Yes, Dan Rattiner is still in the Hamptons, and after fifty-plus years on the eastern end of Long Island, most of them as publisher of the region’s free weekly newspaper, Dan’s Papers, he still has a lot of stories to tell. Here, offered in his signature dry, observant, and self-deprecating wit, are Rattiner’s further encounters with the billionaires and celebrities, the farmers and fishermen, the eccentric artists and ordinary folks, who together make the Hamptons one of the most fashionable, exclusive, and entertaining communities in the United States. As Tom Wolfe once noted, “If a guy says it happened in the Hamptons, and Dan Rattiner doesn’t know about it, it didn’t.” The people he writes about are presented in chronological order from 1959 to today, just as Rattiner lived it and has remembered it. Still in the Hamptons will help you understand what the Hamptons used to be and what it has become, and will provide an entertaining read along the way. Praise for Dan Rattiner “If you pick up the East Hampton Star, you’ll learn the who, what, and where. The why and how are more likely found in the pages of Dan’s Papers … If you want to understand the crazy quilt of art, sand, money, farmland, literature, golf clubs, divorces, sea spray, and the area’s remarkable blend of ego, generosity, and dedication to historic preservation, read Dan’s book, In the Hamptons, and its sequel, In the Hamptons Too.” ― Alec Baldwin, from the Foreword of In the Hamptons Too “Dan Rattiner has been chronicling the people and events of the Hamptons for as long as I’ve been going there (since the sixties). If anyone wanted some insight into what made this area such an interesting place, all they’d need was a copy of In the Hamptons. It’s as close to rubbing elbows as you can get. Enjoy!” ― Billy Joel “If there was an honorary mayor of the Hamptons it would have to be Dan Rattiner … a raconteur with a wicked sense of humor and an eye for detail.” ― Long Island History Journal

Still in the Hamptons: More Tales of the Rich, the Famous, and the Rest of Us (Excelsior Editions)

More stories of the outsized and the ordinary from the editor and publisher of Dan’s Papers. This is Dan Rattiner’s fourth collection of essays about the fishermen, farmers, celebrities, billionaires, and artists who live, work, and play in the Hamptons. As the founder and publisher of Dan’s Papers, a weekly community newspaper, Rattiner knows the Hamptons backwards and forwards, and stories of his encounters on the South Fork of Long Island give readers a greater understanding of how this community has changed over the years and the major figures who have shepherded these changes along. In addition to well-known faces such as Dr. Oz and billionaires like Ira Rennert and his wife―who built the second-largest private home in America―you’ll also read about motel owners, art gallery owners, an ad salesman for Dan’s Papers, and a philanthropist who at one time had nearly a dozen historical buildings on her $100 million property in East Hampton. The book also provides some of the hoaxes and tall tales that the author has fabricated over the years to entertain the readers of Dan’s Papers, including the moving radar tower at Montauk, the great Ecuadorian eel attack, and the Hamptons subway. “Dan’s book, as does his newspaper, creates a chronicle of the women and men who have chosen to live in this magical place over these different decades, so one gets a very personal picture of how it was and is. Dan’s seen it all and isn’t keeping it under his very real hat.” ― from the Foreword by Barbara L. Goldsmith

In the Hamptons 4ever: Mostly True Tales from the East End (Excelsior Editions)

Energetic stories, wonderfully droll and full of opinions -- a man in love with life. -- Susan Isaacs

Dan's Shorts

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Permanent Pr Pub Co

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rattiner, Dan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Rattiner, Dan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rattiner, Dan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

In the Hamptons: My Fifty Years with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities

In the Hamptons: My Fifty Years with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities

Dan's Greatest Hits!

In the Hamptons Too: Further Encounters With Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities

Still in the Hamptons: More Tales of the Rich, the Famous, and the Rest of Us (Excelsior Editions)

In the Hamptons 4ever: Mostly True Tales from the East End (Excelsior Editions)

Dan's Shorts