Long Island's Gold Coast, more than any other section of the country, has captured the imagination of America. This, in part, is attributable to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

This revised and updated two-volume analysis of the North Shore families documents over 1,700 estate owners in a modified "Who's Who" format. Included are 1,394 photographs of the estates, biographical data on the estate owners and their families, locations of estates using current street references and village designations, estate names, acreage, architects, architectural styles, dates of construction, landscape architects, subsequent owners, location of archival photographs of the estates, and information as to whether mansions are still extant and, if not, the dates of demolition. Included are family cross-references to the other four volumes in the series.

The appendices list estate names, village locations of estates, as well as, architectural and landscape commissions. The civic activity and occupation appendices document the contribution of Long Islanders, including statesmen, intelligence agents, financiers, writers, and inventors. Maiden names, rehabilitative secondary uses of estates including golf courses which were formerly private estates, motion pictures filmed at estate sites, a general bibliography of the "Gilded Age," and a bibliography specific to individual estate owners, with the location of personal papers, have also been included.