David Mamet was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 30, 1947, His father was a labor lawyer and his mother a schoolteacher. After his parents' divorce in 1958, Mamet lived with his mother and sister. He played football, wrestled, and was a voracious reader. In 1963, he moved to North Chicago to live with his father and attend the private Francis Parker school where he first took drama classes and played the lead in a musical. He also worked backstage at Hull House theatre and at the famous improvisational Second City Company.

Mamet studied literature and drama at Goddard College in Vermont, where he received a B.A. degree in 1969. His first short play, Camel, was written to fulfill his thesis requirement. During his time at Goddard, he spent a year "in the field" at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, where he studied the...