It was his dog – a West Highland Terrier named Messalina – that first led Michael Gross to St. Barth nearly 40 years ago – and eventually to his juicy new book, Treasured Island: The Story of St. Barth … and Its Barbarians, Billionaires, and Beauties (Harper). “My wife had been reading about St. Barts,” Gross tells Zoomer, explaining they needed a vacation spot where they could take their pooch (not as simple back then!). “I didn’t know much … but when it came to a Caribbean island, I was always game.”
So off they went. And kept going. Once, twice a year – more or less – ever since, to this 11-mile “overseas collectivity” of France, located in the southeast Caribbean, just off the island of St. Martin. Known officially as St. Barthélemy in France, St. Barth is its common French abbreviation, and, just as confusingly, it’s referred to as St. Barts by many Americans.
A once “barren volcanic island” that sustained itself with piracy and smuggling, its luxurious makeover began in the 1960s. “They were trying to recreate St. Tropez in the Caribbean,” Gross says of the French sophisticates who came, early on, and bought up property and built villas on the island. And many French influences live on, most persuasively in its culinary legacy. “One of the things about St. Barth is that you have French grocery stores … French boulangeries and French patisseries,” remarks Gross.
A Jane Goodall, if you will, of the “one percent,” Gross was once dubbed by legendary journalist Gay Talese “the premier chronicler of the rich” thanks to his myriad of books about the Beautiful People: 740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building (2006), for instance, is a classic of its genre, and 2011’s Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women remains the definitive investigation of the modelling industry and the birth of the supermodels.
And yet, he never realized in all those decades spent on the island that he was actually doing hands-on research in his area of expertise. “It was so familiar,” says the 73-year-old New Yorker, “I couldn’t even see until I saw. And then it was there – like a blinding flash.”
Presto: a new book in which the main character is an island, one that has recently become a Who’s Who paradise, especially during “The Season” – between Christmas and New Year’s – when it’s a bonfire of the boldface and a yacht-style arms race attracting models, moguls and other A-listers. From Leo to JLo … to Bezos!
The book has got it all: the twists, the turns, the tensions, the crazy characters and shifting timelines, the “psychological velvet rope” (Gross’s name for the island’s tiny runway), and a deep dive into “St. Bling” [another nickname for the place] as a Rorschach test for the filthy rich! Treasured Island takes us on an all-exclusive tour: from the shadow of the Swedes (who once laid claim to the island) to the influence of money-bags David Rockefeller.
The latter very much left an imprint on the island, as did aviator and Renaissance man Rémy de Haenen, who founded its iconic hotel, Eden Rock. Hatched in 1953, when there was no electricity or telephone lines, it would go on to attract the whole beau mode: from Gianni Agnelli to Montgomery Clift, and from Howard Hughes to Jacques Cousteau. Later, of course, came the likes of Jimmy Buffett and Lorne Michaels. Rudolf Nureyev! Princess Di!
Incoming: Russian oligarchs.
And then … the 1990s. “It took, of course, the arrival of fashion photographers and supermodels and rock stars to really put it on the map,” says Gross. At which point, we both idled on those famous images of a young Gwyneth Paltrow and then-boyfriend Brad Pitt hiding away on the island early in their relationship – photos that really helped create an aura and brought paparazzi culture to the place. “The underlying theme of the book,” says Gross, “is what happens when paradise gets discovered? And can it remain paradise?”
Here, we ask Gross our Shelf Life questionnaire to see what he’s been reading these days – on and off the island.
What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
I’m going to give you two. The Revolutionists by Jason Burke. It’s a dissection of modern terrorism. It’s totally involving, extraordinary. Bringing together strands of things I had not thought about.
The other I read is a very old book, from 1962, and it’s by Philip K. Dick. The Man in the High Castle.
What book can’t you wait to dive into?
A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper. It’s a Los Angeles noir – and I’ve always loved mysteries set there. I’m just one of those New Yorkers who loves L.A.
What is your favourite book of all time?
My favourite is The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. I read it in either the 10th or 11th grade and, in many ways, it determined what I wanted to do in my life.
What book completely changed your perspective?
In 1995, I got a job on the Style page of The New York Times, and my wife gave me – as a congratulations present – a book by Charlotte Curtis, the woman who, in a previous generation, had run the Style page of the Times. It was a collection of her columns. The title tells you everything you need to know: The Rich and Other Atrocities. It’s a great title!
If you could have dinner with any author, living or dead, who would it be?
Tacitus – a Roman historian who wrote about the upper classes of Rome. I’m fascinated with Roman history. Tacitus was both a historian and a great gossip, so he would be a great companion, I’m sure.
