Written by Vanity Fair investigative reporter and bestselling author, Vicky Ward, this enthralling expose delivers the inside scoop on some of history's most famous (and infamous) real estate dynasties. It is the story of men with outsized dreams and egos to match who were willing to go to any lengths to amass vast fortunes through land speculation. With novelistic flare, Ward describes how those men's ambitions made them the Kings of America, larger-than-life representatives of the American Dream, but how their fortunes rarely bought them the one thing they craved more than gold—acceptance among America's social elite, the often penniless WASP descendants of the founding families.

• An captivating history of the greatest American real estate barons and their scions, including everyone from the Astors and Rockefellers to the Trumps and Zeckendorffs
• Includes fascinating, little-known details about how the dynasties began, how they amassed their great wealth, and how, from one generation to the next, those fortunes were either expanded or squandered
• Author, Vicky Ward, is well connected with the British Media, and her New York Times bestseller, The Devil's Casino was a hit with audiences in the UK
• Breaks the story on scandals which will be strategically leaked in anticipation of the book, to generate buzz for the topic and for the book

VICKY WARD is the New York-based, British-born author of the New York Times bestseller The Devil's Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High-Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers (Wiley, 2010). A former contributing editor to Vanity Fair for 11 years, she is the former executive editor of Talk magazine and the former news features editor of the New York Post. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, The Times (London), and the Daily Telegraph. She holds a master's in English literature from Cambridge University.

Preface ix

Cast of Characters xi

Introduction xv

Chapter 1 Stealing the Spotlight 1

Chapter 2 Alpha Males 11

Chapter 3 The Rigged Bid 21

Chapter 4 Harry’s Hero 37

Chapter 5 The Odd Couple: The English Lord and the Housewife Tycoon 49

Chapter 6 The Age of the Wolf 65

Chapter 7 Donald Trump’s Bag Man 79

Chapter 8 The Money Hunters and the Salesman from Indianapolis 91

Chapter 9 Donald’s “Force Majeure” 103

Chapter 10 Paradise, Briefl y 109

Chapter 11 Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride 117

Chapter 12 Tick Tock—A Year on the Clock 129

Chapter 13 The Fall That Wasn’t 145

Chapter 14 Aftermath 153

Note about the Sources 157

Acknowledgments 159

Notes 161

Bibliography 231

About the Author 233

Index 235