Poet and the Rent

Flossmoor, Ill[inois]. David Mamet, 1973.

Price: $25,000.00

Softcover. Quarto. 41pp. Spirit-duplicated playscript printed in purple on rectos only, prong-bound into a manila folder, hand-titled by Mamet on front wrap: "Poet and the Rent by David Mamet. This Copy Belongs To David Mamet" and with the number "19" in upper right-hand corner. Very good or better. David Mamet's personal copy of his second play. The title page bears his printed copyright notice for 1973, from his hometown of Flossmoor, Illinois. Heavily annotated throughout in his hand, with dialogue rewritten on the verso of the title page and on another page, and on the inside of both wrappers. Also bears a pencil sketch on the rear wrapper of what appears to be a set, presumably in his hand, as well as a separate laid-in mimeographed leaf on blue paper providing a rehearsal and performance schedule and the locations on the Goddard College campus where they would be held.

The play was first performed in March of 1973 at Goddard College in Vermont, where Mamet was a student and teacher. The original cast included Oscar-nominated actor William H. Macy, who was Mamet's student and frequent collaborator and who made his directorial debut with a 1975 version of the play. This is very much a working copy, with Mamet making changes, striking out lines he didn't like, inserting new dialogue and noting new ideas as they occurred to him. From the estate of Fritzie Sahlins. Sahlins was a co-founder with her husband Bernie, of Second City Theater Troupe, and worked with Mamet on his first full-length play *The Duck Variations,* one year earlier. This play was published much later as *Poet and the Rent* by Samuel French in 1981 as an acting edition and as *The Poet and the Rent* by Grove Press in 1986 in the omnibus edition *Three Children's Plays*. Overall the most substantive, heavily annotated, and earliest playscript of Mamet's that we've seen. *OCLC* locates no copies, although the finding aid to Mamet's papers at the Ransom Center seems to indicate that they have a copy with corrections not specifying whose hand they are in.


Item #402990

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Item #402990 Poet and the Rent. David MAMET.
Poet and the Rent
Poet and the Rent
Poet and the Rent
Poet and the Rent
Poet and the Rent
Poet and the Rent
Poet and the Rent