Overview

Ongoing Trump Trials and Upcoming Election: Fall 2024 marks a crucial moment in the country’s political history, as the focus is not only on the presidential election, but also on the legal developments surrounding former President Donald Trump.  Includes a Focused History of Trump’s Pre-Presidential Financial & Real Estate Dealings  Deeply Researched History, 100 Years of Upper-Class Gossip, and Sharp Critique of Architecture and Design: Uses previously untapped interviews, documents, and recordings to bring to life the estate and an incredible cast of characters. The Story Behind Mar-a-Lago and “Trumpville”: . Inside Trump’s War to Turn Mar-A-Lago into a For-Profit Resort Club Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Includes Trump and Ivanka, Maria, and Melanie, plus the marriage and affairs of original Mar-a-Lago owners E.F. Hutton and divorcee Marjorie Merriweather Post (heiress to the Post Cereal fortune), followed by more divorces. Before Donald Trump, There was Marjorie Merriweather Post: An heiress who turned her father’s company into General Foods, one of the first women to command a global corporation. The story of her building, inhabiting, and trying to offload Mar-a-Lago.  Mar-a-Lago as Center of Stark Racial and Demographic Distinctions: After the hurricane of 1928, for example, Mar-a-Lago’s owners simply had to repair damages while thousands of poor, Black laborers living in shacks had died the suffocating death of drowning.  History of Mar-A-Lago’s Outrageous and Scandalous Dinners and Parties and Raids: From the FBI raid to Kanye West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes back to Trump’s celebrity-studded pre-presidential parties, the book also covers Post’s benefits showcasing trapeze acts, rodeo performers, and a trick mule named Spark Plug; even a circus freak show featuring French and Belgian midgets, a “living” skeleton, monkey man, an armless wonder, and a 700-pound woman.  History of Mar-A-Lago’s Impressive Guests: The book narrates how long, before Trump, Mar-a-Lago was a celebrated stop for royalty, powerbrokers, and socialites.  The Surprising Pre-Trump Presidential History Of Mar-A-Lago: Joseph Kennedy’s attempt to buy it for the Kennedys; Lady Bird Johnson’s 1968 visit to consider it for a more luxurious version of Camp David; and Nixon’s July 1974 diary entry upon “look[ing] over the property to determine its potential for possible use by U.S. Presidents for visiting foreign dignitaries.” A Tale of Florida and Palm Beach: The story behind the failed attempt in 1963 to give the estate to Florida as “The Mar-a-Lago Center for Advanced Scholars.” How the Federal Government Swallowed It Up and Spit it Back Out: Though it became a national historic site in 1969, the upkeep cost too much, and President Carter signed an act into law on December 23, 1980, to officially delist Mar-a-Lago from the park service.  Unpacking the Parsimonious Truth About How Trump Purchased Mar-A-Lago From the Post Foundation: How Trump got 99.97% financing from Chase Manhattan Bank and used less than $3,000 of his own money to purchase the estate. Architecture and Real Estate Thread: Fascinating comparisons to the other mansions of the area, like El Mirasol, and its wealthy residents, plus detailed portrayals of Mar-a-Lago architects Marion Sims Wyeth and Joseph Urban; and Austrian sculptor Franz Barwig. 15-20 B&W Photos Included

Full Product Details

9781635768961

Table of Contents

Reviews

"“An enthralling narrative of extreme American opulence and unforgettable characters set within Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Mar-a-Lago. American Castle is the brilliantly detailed, must-read prologue to the estate’s current chapter of excess and scandal.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America “A history of a grand mansion and its numerous occupants. . . . A well-told story that’s full of surprises, its storied subject generating headlines for a century."" —Kirkus Reviews “An entirely new perspective of the now world-famous Mar-a-Lago. The public tends to look at Mar-a-Lago as the residence of Donald Trump, without realizing that it once belonged to them as part of the National Park Service—and before that to one of the wealthiest and most compelling socialites in American history, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Bookended by the FBI search and Trump’s arrest, American Castle is an opulent, lively history of Post’s grand estate."" —Tim Franklin, Senior Associate Dean of Northwestern University Medill School, former President of the Poynter Institute"

"“An enthralling narrative of extreme American opulence and unforgettable characters set within Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Mar-a-Lago. American Castle is the brilliantly detailed, must-read prologue to the estate’s current chapter of excess and scandal.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America “An entirely new perspective of the now world-famous Mar-a-Lago. The public tends to look at Mar-a-Lago as the residence of Donald Trump, without realizing that it once belonged to them as part of the National Park Service—and before that to one of the wealthiest and most compelling socialites in American history, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Bookended by the FBI search and Trump’s arrest, American Castle is an opulent, lively history of Post’s grand estate."" —Tim Franklin, Senior Associate Dean of Northwestern University Medill School, former President of the Poynter Institute"

"""Reading American Castle is like having a tabloid newspaper in front of you and a history book on the side. Or the other way around. Or both; straddling many important historical events, there's enough inside here to satisfy the two genres equally. If you love the history of privilege, politics, or current events, American Castle is a book you won't stop talking about."" —Terri Schlichenmeyer,  The Goshen News ""...a fast-paced narrative that takes a detailed look into the 118-room, 17-acre estate's history...What lies ahead for Mar-a-Lago isn't known.""  —Susan Salisbury, Palm Beach Daily News “An enthralling narrative of extreme American opulence and unforgettable characters set within Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Mar-a-Lago. American Castle is the brilliantly detailed, must-read prologue to the estate’s current chapter of excess and scandal.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America “A history of a grand mansion and its numerous occupants . . . A well-told story that’s full of surprises, its storied subject generating headlines for a century."" —Kirkus Reviews “An entirely new perspective of the now world-famous Mar-a-Lago. The public tends to look at Mar-a-Lago as the residence of Donald Trump, without realizing that it once belonged to them as part of the National Park Service—and before that to one of the wealthiest and most compelling socialites in American history, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Bookended by the FBI search and Trump’s arrest, American Castle is an opulent, lively history of Post’s grand estate."" —Tim Franklin, Senior Associate Dean of Northwestern University Medill School, former President of the Poynter Institute ""Journalist Shanklin debuts with an immersive behind-the-scenes portrait of Mar-a-Lago, the former Palm Beach mansion turned private club. “An ode to Roaring Twenties excess,” the 17-acre “winter trophy estate” built by heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887–1973) cost $3 million and took three years, from 1924 to 1927, to complete. When Post took the reins of the General Foods empire in 1936, becoming one of the first women to “command a global corporation,” she shuttered the mansion. Five years later, she turned it into a tourist attraction to “raise much-needed war funds.” After the war, Post relocated to Hillwood, her Washington, D.C., mansion, and none of her children took an interest in Mar-a-Lago. The National Park Service acquired it in 1973, but, daunted by the costs of upkeep, returned it to the Post Foundation after only a year. Current owner Donald Trump acquired the estate in 1986 for $10 million, turned it into a private club in 1994, and used it as the winter White House during his presidency; Shanklin concludes with the 2022 FBI raid to retrieve classified documents from the club. Chronicling 100 years of contentious real estate schemes and failed plots to put “this massive souvenir of the 1920s” to good use, Shanklin demonstrates that Mar-a-Lago has had an unusually variegated history, even compared to similar Gilded Age castles. Readers will be entertained."" —Publishers Weekly"

Author Information

Journalist Mary Shanklin has written for decades about real estate schemes, housing busts, hurricanes, and government misdeeds. Her stories have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, USA Today, Architectural Record, and elsewhere. Mary was a Pulitzer finalist for a series on the Pulse nightclub shootings (team entry), and has won journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Education Writers Association, and the National Association of Real Estate Editors, as well as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. She also teaches journalism at the University of Central Florida. She lives in Palm Beach County, Florida.

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