Augustus Mayhew

Lost in Wonderland: Reflections on Palm Beach Augustus Mayhew

Lost in Wonderland explores the myths, social climate and architectural tableaux that make Palm Beach like no other place in the world. Author and lecturer Augustus Mayhew offers twenty-one informative and insightful essays, previously published in the Palm Beach Daily News and the New York Social Diary, combined with more than two hundred historical and contemporary photographs.  The book chronicles the places and personalities that make Palm Beach a quirky blend of fantasy and reality. The island's uncommon mélange of English gardens, Tuscan loggias, Venetian staircases, Spanish patios, Bermuda roofs, and Georgian doorways, makes for an incomparable mirage-like grandeur attractive to both Social Register swells and the latest Wall Street billionaires. The author presents a candid perspective on the shifting ground between Palm Beach's past as a seasonal resort destination and its present status as an exclusive residential enclave as captivated by mansion facades as charity ball motifs.