Simon Spies was a famous Danish tycoon, best known for starting the charter airline Spies Rejser. He was known for his provocative views and flamboyant lifestyle. He was famous for employing at his private residence so-called morning humping ladies. When going to the theater he would usually buy three tickets, leaving one seat for his cane and one for his dog Archibald.
When Antoinette Saint Leger was forced to sell her beloved Isles of Brissago in 1927, the islands were bought by the multi-millionaire Jewish German business man Max Emden. Emden had built a profitable empire with department stores spread across all of Germany, including the world famous KaDeVe in Berlin. By the late 1920s he had decided that he had had enough of the business world. It was time to turn his mind (and body) to the delights of the world. Happiness could only be found by turning back towards a more natural way of living. The magical Swiss shores of Lake Maggiore, with Alpine scenery, a Mediterranean climate, a lively arts scene and experiments in alternative ways of living, seemed perfectly suited to his designs. Emden, deciding to start a radically new life, divorced his wife and sold his 150 department stores. He bought the islands and, while preserving the marvelously exotic botanical garden that Saint Leger had so painstakingly created, he had a thirty-room neo-classical palazzo built, together with a Roman style outdoor bath. From this point until his death in 1940 he lived in the palazzo on his own island and indulged to the full in what he called "the Art of Living".
Harry Crosby was the godson of J. P. Morgan and a friend of Ernest Hemingway. Living in Paris in the 1920s and directing the Black Sun Press, which published the works of James Joyce and others, Crosby was at the center of the wild life of the Lost Generation. Drugs, drink, sex, gambling, the deliberate derangement of the senses in the pursuit of transcendent revelation: these were Crosby's pastimes until, in 1929, he shot his girlfriend, the recent bride of another man, and then himself.
Arthur Cravan was known as a pugilist, a poet, a larger-than-life character, and an idol of the Dada and Surrealism movements. After his schooling, during World War I, he travelled throughout Europe and America using a variety of passports and documents, some of them forged. He declared no single nationality and claimed instead to be "a citizen of 20 countries". Cravan set out to promote himself as an eccentric and an art critic, though his interest was showing off a powerful, striking personal style rather than discussing art. He staged public spectacles and stunts with himself at the centre, once acting on the front of a line of carts where he paraded his skills as a boxer and singer, although he never pursued either of these activities on stage with anyone else.
Taki Theodoracopulos is a playboy and journalist.
Prince Aly Khan was a socialite, racehorse owner and jockey, and the third husband of Rita Hayworth. He served as Pakistan's representative to the United Nations, where he became a vice president of the General Assembly.
The son of a Spanish nobleman and a strong willed, English woman who had inherited the fortune of HFC founder Frank Mackey, Alfonso de Portago was not only born to wealth and entitlement, but was fiercely competitive and a superb athlete. Up to the age of 24, his passion was horses, flat track and jumping. He quickly became one of the most successful amateur jockeys in Europe. Auto racing bit him in 1953-54, and he bought himself the proper sportscars (Maserati, OSCA and Ferraris) gaining entry into international events where he attracted the attention of the factory teams. By 1956 Portago was on the Ferrari Formula One team, entrusted with one of the Lancia Ferrari D50s. He fared well and for 1957 there was to be more opportunity, a chance cut short by his death, and that of 15 others in the Mille Miglia.
Jaime de Mora y Aragon, a flamboyant Spanish aristocrat whose amiable antics made him the toast of the Costa del Sol.
Karl Hess left school at fifteen to work as a reporter and wound up, just a few years later, as associate editor at Newsweek. He helped William F Buckley Jr found the National Review, worked closely with Joseph McCarthy, and became chief speechwriter for Barry Goldwater. But true to a conscience that caused him to question the claims and authority of others, Hess eventually rejected conservatism and embraced the libertarian politics of the New Left. He dabbled with drugs, rode motorcycles, worked with the Black Panthers, got arrested while protesting the war in Vietnam, and published an article in Playboy that defined libertarianism and ignited a national debate. As an anti-Communist he co-operated with the FBI, but as a libertarian he fought the IRS until he was nearly destitute. Whatever his political leanings, he always despised conceit, exploded intolerance, and embraced life to the fullest. He was a man who travelled in influential circles, often close to power, but, in his own words, 'mostly on the edge'. Karl Hess participated in many of the defining events of 20th-century America, a self-taught boy who became a self-made journalist. "Mostly on the Edge" chronicles the life education of Hess, who became a defiant tester of the prevailing ideas of each decade. He lived by trial and error, and was always willing to acknowledge his mistakes. Like Franklin and Thoreau, Hess hoped to wake up America by questioning the moral majority, fighting the Kafkaesque intrusions of government, and encouraging his family, friends, and highly influential colleagues to think for themselves. Hess provides eyewitness accounts, unique personal observations, startling and valuable insights on leadership and dissent, and, in the end, leaves behind a clear path to realising the dream of freedom.
Marco Pierre White was one of the first celebrity chefs. During his early career in the kitchen, White regularly ejected patrons from his restaurants if he took offence at their comments. By the age of 33, White had become the first British chef to be awarded three Michelin stars. He was also the youngest chef to win three stars.