A piece of literary history is no more. The iconic New York mansion that some say inspired “The Great Gatsby” is being razed to make way for a subdivision.

Razing of the mansion known as Land’s End began last weekend. The 13-acre property facing the Long Island Sound will be replaced by five $10 million houses. The local newspaper reports that Winston Churchill, the Marx Brothers and Ethel Barrymore attended parties there in the 1920s and 1930s.

The house – which featured marble, parquet floors, Palladian windows and hand-painted wallpaper – had fallen into disrepair. The developer who bought it several years ago said he could no longer keep up with repairs.

Local lore says F. Scott Fitzgerald would watch the grand parties at Land’s End from a property across the water – and that may have inspired “The Great Gatsby.”

CBS Sunday Morning recently ran a piece about the mansion and filmed its demolition. Check out the video here.

I recently discovered a new author whose work I absolutely love. Of course, that’s nothing new, we’ve all done that before. It is how I discovered Margaret Mallory that is new in this evolving ebook universe.

In February, I saw it posted somewhere online that the first book in her All the King’s Men series was being offered for $1.99. I was not familiar with Mallory but – since I can’t resist a good deal – I went straight to Amazon and downloaded Knight of Desire.

It was a thoroughly entertaining read – fast paced, well written, passionate and sexy with very appealing lead and secondary characters. I finished it quickly and was anxious to read the two remaining books in the series. But I was busy at work and with the kids and had plenty of other unread books on my nightside table so I put any new purchases out of my mind for the moment.

This month Mallory tweeted that the second book in the series, Knight of Pleasure, was now $1.99. I jumped on it and devoured the second book quickly. It was possibly even better than the first.

Now the third book in the series is calling my name. It is still listed at regular price – but what can I say – I’m hooked! Even if Knight of Passion (I do love the titles in this trilogy) never goes on sale, I know I am going to pony up and pay full price.  

The thing is I probably would not have even sampled Margaret Mallory’s work at all if it had not been for the great deals which enticed me to give her novels a try. Now I’ll probably read everything she writes.

Thanks to savvy ebook pricing and marketing, social networking and captivating storytelling, everybody wins.

And it’s not only Knight of Passion that I’ve got my eye on. Mallory has a new book, The Guardian, coming out on May 1. There is no doubt that I will read it.

The only question is whether or not I’ll pre-order it.