The White Fence

In East Hampton, NY during the mid-Twentieth century, author Anton "Tony" Prohaska spends hours of his childhood sitting on his family's white fence and observing the diverse and eclectic community around him. With an artist father, caught between making a living as an illustrator and a devotion to fine art, and a mother, a former actress and model who is also an artist, Anton had to find his place in the alternate world of the local fishermen, farmers, and tradesmen. Through the area's diverse lives, his personal memoir threads a larger history of how the Hamptons become what we know it as today.

Artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and James Montgomery Flagg (known for the "Uncle Sam Wants You" poster) represent only a few of the book's icons, but most of the folks are unsung heroes of the region. Experience their oral histories come to life-from smuggling, storing, and distributing alcohol during Prohibition to the community's close relationship with horses for both work and play. Complete with nearly fifty photographs illustrating the text and exhibiting the local art, "The White Fence" is a touching and vivid story of Long Island's East End, its effect on the world at large, and its shaping of a thoughtful and observant boy.