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Ptown

Art, Sex, and Money on the Outer Cape

About The Book

When you look back at its history, you can see a progression in Provincetown, things getting wilder and wilder, the outlaw element becoming the norm....
Provincetown, Cape Cod: This small Massachusetts enclave has long been home to pirates, commune-dwellers, artists, and other noble countrymen who value liberty over law -- from Norman Mailer and Tennessee Williams to John Waters, Robert Motherwell, and former congressman Gerry Studds. With one of the largest homosexual populations per capita of any town or city in the United States, and some of the highest beachfront real estate prices in the Northeast, Provincetown is a thriving tourist spot that attracts more than one million visitors each year. Here, acclaimed writer and longtime Ptown resident Peter Manso brings together all the celebrities and townsfolk, history and happenstance, and politics and gossip to offer an unparalleled account of this unconventional seaside society -- a place, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, where "one may stand...and put all of America behind him."

About The Author

Courtesy Provincetown Banner

Peter Manso is the author of the definitive biographies of Marlon Brando and Norman Mailer, as well as Ptown: Art, Sex, and Money on the Outer Cape, which was a #1 Boston Globe bestseller. His work has appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Vanity Fair, the Sunday Times of London, Paris Match, and many other publications.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Scribner (May 6, 2003)
  • Length: 352 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780743243117

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Raves and Reviews

Alex Beam The Boston Globe Provocative...eloquently written [and] in-your-face.

Nicholas von Hoffman Columnist, New York Observer Social history and analysis...nicely concealed in hypnotically fascinating reading. Ptown's got everything: drama, love, crime, humor, real estate, nostalgia, art, celebrities, you name it.

Boston Herald A provocative look at cultural history and contemporary lifestyles.

The Provincetown Banner There are some terrific stories here, the ones we love to hear and to tell.

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