Best Selling Books by David Mamet

One hundred years after the first publication of The Voysey Inheritance, David Mamet resurrects Harley Granville-Barker’s classic investigation into the capitalist soul in this brilliant adaptation. For generations, the Voysey family business has been secretly skimming money from its clients’ accounts. When Edward, designated to take over the firm from his aging father, discovers the embezzlement that has been keeping his relatives in a life of luxury, he must weigh the trappings of wealth and the imperative to preserve his family’s good name against the better principles of his conscience. But moral righteousness turns to self-protection when he comes to understand fully the consequences of his “inheritance.”

In these two moving early plays, David Mamet displays the humor, sensitivity, and ear for language that have made him one of the most celebrated playwrights in American theater today. Reunion depicts the awkward, tender meeting between a father and a daughter drawn together by their loneliness after twenty years of separation. Their cautious small talk, filled with evasion and cliché, gradually exposes the terrifying isolation in which they live, and ultimately, their great need for each other. In the short vignette Dark Pony, a father tells a favorite bedtime story to comfort his young daughter as they drive home late at night. A foray into the realm of legend, the story of a young Indian brave and his trusty horse, Dark Pony has been called “a lovely, tiny moment of a play” by Julius Novick of The Village Voice.

So, what happens in Uncle Vanya? Not much; just life, played out over four acts. There are rich people, and there are people who work for the rich people, whom the rich people don''t really care about. There is a gun fired in anger and desperation, but there aren''t any bodies to carry off stage. There are men making fools of themselves over women. There are those who accept their fates and wait for their rewards in heaven, and there are others who don''t care one way or another. Chekhov''s play moves so languidly that, without a vibrant cast, an understanding director, and a lively translation, it stands the chance of passing under the radar of the average audience. The reworking of the script aims at accessibility, replacing the "outdated colloquialisms" and "brittle prose" of earlier translations.

A wasted weekend is a 1987 episode of Hill Street Blues focusing on four cops and their ill-fated hunting trip.

Compared to some of its New England neighbors, Vermont has seemed to long-time resident David Mamet a place of intrinsic energy and progressiveness, love and commonality. It has lived up to the old story that settlers came up the Connecticut River and turned right to get to New Hampshire and left to get to Vermont. Is Vermont''s tradition of live and let live an accident of geography, the happy by-product of 200 years of national neglect, an emanation of its Scots-Irish regional character? Exploring the ways in which his decades in Vermont have shaped his character and his work, Mamet examines each of these strands and how the state''s free-thinking tradition can survive in an age of increasing conglomeration. The result is a highly personal and compelling portrait of a truly unique place.

If theatre were a religion, explains David Mamet in his opening chapter, "many of the observations and suggestions in this book might be heretical." As always, Mamet delivers on his promise: in Theatre, the acclaimed author of Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed the Plow calls for nothing less than the death of the director and the end of acting theory. For Mamet, either actors are good or they are non-actors, and good actors generally work best without the interference of a director, however well-intentioned. Issue plays, political correctness, method actors, impossible directions, Stanislavksy, and elitists all fall under Mamet''s critical gaze. To students, teachers, and directors who crave a blast of fresh air in a world that can be insular and fearful of change, Theatre throws down a gauntlet that challenges everyone to do better, including Mamet himself.

House of Games is a psychological thriller in which a young woman psychiatrist falls prey to an elaborate and ingenious con game by one of her patients who entraps her in a series of criminal escapades. Ties in with movie to be released in September. 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

A new drama by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Glengarry Glen Ross.

From the Pulitzer Prize- winning author of Glengarry Glen Ross, here is a collection of thirty-two one-act plays and short dramatic pieces that David Mamet himself considers to be some of the best writing he has ever done.

Spanning centuries and continents, Mamet uses war and its players to explore, among other themes, redemption and forgiveness as they unfold in the context of conflict in the form of three novellas. In The Redwing, the first of the three novellas, a 19th-century Secret Service naval officer turned prisoner, then novelist, and finally memoirist recounts his own transformations during the course of his service and imprisonment. The protagonist in Notes on Plain Warfare examines religion through the prism of the American Indian wars. Finally, The Handle and the Hold is a vivid, dialogue-driven tale of two ex-military men who steal a plane in the month before the Israeli War of Independence.

Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet ranks among the century''s most influential writers for stage and screen. His dialogue--abrasive, rhythmic--illuminates a modern aesthetic evocative of Samuel Beckett. His plots--surprising, comic, topical--have evoked comparisons to masters from Alfred Hitchcock to Arthur Miller. Here are two screenplays demonstrating the astounding range of Mamet''s talents. The Spanish Prisoner, a neo-noir thriller about a research-and-development cog hoodwinked out of his own brilliant discovery, demonstrates Mamet''s incomparable use of character in a dizzying tale of twists and mistaken identity. The Winslow Boy, Mamet''s revisitation of Terence Rattigan''s classic 1946 play, tells of a thirteen-year-old boy accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order and the tug of war for truth that ensues between his middle-class family and the Royal Navy. Crackling with wit, intelligent and surprising, The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy celebrate Mamet''s unique genius and our eternal fascination with the extraordinary predicaments of the common man.

From the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and playwright: an exhilaratingly subversive inside look at Hollywood from a filmmaker who’s always played by his own rules. Who really reads the scripts at the film studios? How is a screenplay like a personals ad? Why are there so many producers listed in movie credits? And what on earth do those producers do anyway? Refreshingly unafraid to offend, Mamet provides hilarious, surprising, and refreshingly forthright answers to these and other questions about every aspect of filmmaking from concept to script to screen. A bracing, no-holds-barred examination of the strange contradictions of Tinseltown, Bambi vs. Godzilla dissects the movies with Mamet’s signature style and wit.

In the ancient Jewish practice of the kavannah (a meditation designed to focus one’s heart on its spiritual goal), Lawrence Kushner and David Mamet offer their own reactions to key verses from each week’s Torah portion, opening the biblical text to new layers of understanding. Here is a fascinating glimpse into two great minds, as each author approaches the text from his unique perspective, each seeking an understanding of the Bible’s personalities and commandments, paradoxes and ambiguities. Kushner offers his words of Torah with a conversational enthusiasm that ranges from family dynamics to the Kabbalah; Mamet challenges the reader, often beginning his comment far afield—with Freud or the American judiciary—before returning to a text now wholly reinterpreted. In the tradition of Israel as a people who wrestle with God, Kushner and Mamet grapple with the biblical text, succumbing neither to apologetics nor parochialism, asking questions without fear of the answers they may find. Over the course of a year of weekly readings, they comment on all aspects of the Bible: its richness of theme and language, its contradictions, its commandments, and its often unfathomable demands. If you are already familiar with the Bible, this book will draw you back to the text for a deeper look. If you have not yet explored the Bible in depth, Kushner and Mamet are guides of unparalleled wisdom and discernment. Five Cities of Refuge is easily accessible yet powerfully illuminating. Each week’s comments can be read in a few minutes, but they will give you something to think about all week long. Lawrence Kushner teaches and writes as the Emanu-El Scholar at The Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco. He has taught at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City and served for twenty-eight years as rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts. A frequent lecturer, he is also the author of more than a dozen books on Jewish spirituality and mysticism. He lives in San Francisco. David Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright. He is the author of Glengarry Glen Ross, The Cryptogram, and Boston Marriage, among other plays. He has also published three novels and many screenplays, children''s books, and essay collections.

Part of the Jewish Encounter series As might be expected from this fiercely provocative writer, David Mamet’s interest in anti-Semitism is not limited to the modern face of an ancient hatred but encompasses as well the ways in which many Jews have themselves internalized that hatred. Using the metaphor of the Wicked Son at the Passover seder—the child who asks, “What does this story mean to you?”—Mamet confronts what he sees as an insidious predilection among some Jews to seek truth and meaning anywhere—in other religions, in political movements, in mindless entertainment—but in Judaism itself. At the same time, he explores the ways in which the Jewish tradition has long been and still remains the Wicked Son in the eyes of the world. Written with the searing honesty and verbal brilliance that is the hallmark of Mamet’s work,The Wicked Sonis a scathing look at one of the most destructive and tenacious forces in contemporary life, a powerfully thought-provoking and important book.

In this new collection, fans will discover the author''s literary sharing on the nature of creativity, the challenge of aging, and his most intimate interests.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! “Savagery appeased can only grow. Once you give in to it, it must escalate, like a fire searching for air.” The man who won the Pulitzer Prize for GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, who wrote the classic films THE VERDICT and WAG THE DOG sounds his alarm about the Visigoths at our gates. In RECESSIONAL he calls out, skewers, mocks, and, most importantly, dissects the virus of conformity which is now an existential threat to the West. A broad-ranging journey through history, the Bible, and literature, RECESSIONAL examines how politics and cultural attitudes about rebellion have shifted in the United States in the last generation. By screaming down freedom of thought and expression, Mamet explains, we kill invention and democracy – the foundations of security and growth. A wickedly funny, wistful and wry appeal to the free-thinking citizen, RECESSIONAL is a vital warning that if we don’t confront the cultural thuggery now, the commissars and their dupes will transform the Land of the Free into the dictatorship at which they aim.

Bobby Gold is a smooth-talking Jewish homicide detective. He is annoyed when he becoems involved in a routine investigation into the murder of an elderly Jewish woman in a black ghetto. He is more interested in a high-profile murder case that he nd his partner are on the verge of breaking. But the old woman''s murder draws him into a world of anti-Semitism and Jewish terrorism, where his loyalties are blurred, and he is forced to confront his own attitudes about being Jewish.

The Water Engine is a story of a poor young factory worker who invents an engine that runs on water. Big business tries to force him to sell the rights. Mr. Happiness is a companion piece where a host of a radio show attempts to help his listeners in their personal problems.

And just who does Ginger think she is?"--BOOK JACKET.

In Hotline by Elaine May, a neurotic woman with enough urban angst to fill a neighborhood calls a suicide crisis hotline late one night.

This beautifully produced gift book unites the words of David Mamet, America''s most active & esteemed playwright, with stunning artwork by renowned artist Donald Sultan to explore Jewish & universal themes. On the eve of his Bar Mitzvah, a boy learns about life from an old man in whose hands an antique watch reveals something of man''s relation to God. This brief tale moves on a journey from the intricacies of watchmaking to the horrors of Europe in the Holocaust, as the old man shares his understanding of life''s struggles & what it means to be a good Jew.Ó Sultan''s striking images move as gilded clocks & elaborate timepieces yield to blank watch faces, barbed wire, empty windows, & stark architectural renderings. 20 color illustrations.

David Mamet shows us one evening, night and morning in the life of a couple, Nick and Ruth, who are spending some time in a summerhouse. As they pass the time, sharing stories and arguments, the mechanics of their relationship - and by implication, the relationships between women and men generally - come into focus.

The purpose of theater, like magic, like religion . . . is to inspire cleansing awe. What makes good drama? And why does drama matter in an age that is awash in information and entertainment? David Mamet, one of our greatest living playwrights, tackles these questions with bracing directness and aphoristic authority. He believes that the tendency to dramatize is essential to human nature, that we create drama out of everything from today''s weather to next year''s elections. But the highest expression of this drive remains the theater. With a cultural range that encompasses Shakespeare, Bretcht, and Ibsen, Death of a Salesman and Bad Day at Black Rock, Mamet shows us how to distinguish true drama from its false variants. He considers the impossibly difficult progression between one act and the next and the mysterious function of the soliloquy. The result, in Three Uses of the Knife, is an electrifying treatise on the playwright''s art that is also a strikingly original work of moral and aesthetic philosophy.

''A Life in the Theatre'' shows the relationship between two stage actors - Robert, the older, and John, the younger - who are playing side by side in a season of plays. We see them both off stage and on as their relationship evolves from one of professional solidarity to one marked by bitterness and division, with John''s promise as a young actor beginning to be realised just as Robert''s talent starts to wane.