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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 623

David Mamet papers

Overview

Scripts, drafts, and production notes by American playwright, screenwriter, director and author David Mamet with clippings and collected material from Anna Erskine Crouse.

Dates

  • Creation: 1985-1988

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English and German.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.

Extent

1.5 linear feet (3 boxes)

Includes drafts, scripts, screenplays, production notes and galley proofs for plays and films by Mamet, as well as essays and a lecture written by Mamet. Collection also includes clippings, press materials, and theater programs collected by Anna Erskine Crouse. Crouse is the mother of Mamet's first wife, Lindsay Crouse, and is an honorary trustee of the Lincoln Center Theater.

Biographical / Historical

David Mamet, born November 30, 1947 in Chicago, is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, actor, producer and author. First gaining national recognition in 1977 for American Buffalo, Mamet is a prolific writer for both stage and screen known for his stylized use of dialog and rhythmic language. Mamet has received numerous honors including an Obie for Distinguished Playwriting (1976), the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984), and multiple Tony and Academy Award nominations.

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. House of games
  2. II. Sketches of war
  3. III. Speed the plow
  4. IV. Things change
  5. V. Vanya
  6. VI. Other compositions
  7. VII. Other materials

Physical Location

Harvard Depository

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2006MT-183r. Gift of David Mamet, 127 West 79th Street, New York NY, 10024; received: 1978-1988.

2006MT-183r. Gift of Mrs. Anna Erskine Crouse, received: 1988 March 27.

General note

This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.

Processing Information

Processed by: Suzanne E. Denison

Title
Mamet, David. David Mamet papers, 1985-1988: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02113

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440