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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, January 19, 2003

Big-city writer shares private Vermont life

• A-list writers sign on for 'literary travel'

By Renee Tawa
Los Angeles Times

Unfairly or not, playwright David Mamet, 55, sometimes is described in the same terms as his best-known works, such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Glengarry Glen Ross." Journalists have spun him as hard-boiled, streetwise and macho, notoriously private and elliptical, a Chicago native who likes hunting, knives and whiskey, not the type who would note the unfurling of fiddlehead ferns in the woods.

But his bearings happen to be, in fact, in Cabot, Vt., where he is entranced by the changing of the seasons and other markings of country life, he writes in his new book "South of the Northeast Kingdom." The book includes 22 black-and-white photographs taken by Mamet, who has lived in Vermont off and on for nearly 40 years. He notes the ways in which his work and character have been shaped by life in a community of post-and-beam houses made of first-growth pumpkin pine, hand-hewn and framed without nails. (Mamet, his wife, actress Rebecca Pidgeon and their two small children also have a house in Los Angeles' west side, though he won't say how much time he spends there.)

"South of the Northeast Kingdom" is part of a continuing series of "literary travel memoirs" being published by National Geographic Directions. The series, launched last spring, has an eclectic mix of acclaimed novelists, nonfiction writers, poets and playwrights.

Mamet is a prolific writer, producing work that includes children's books, poems and songs; the plays "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" and "Oleanna"; and screenplay adaptations for the movies "The Verdict," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Wag the Dog."

A compact man with a trim beard, he tends to be terse, uttering sentences of, say, one to three words, and not the least bit concerned about the potential awkwardness of using silence as a punctuation mark. He is not unfriendly, and his gaze is direct — "Hi, I'm Dave," he introduces himself, offering a grin and firm handshake. Occasionally and inexplicably he is expansive, and during those moments, while his erudition is unleashed, he is humble, a man who is wincingly aware of the riches in his life.

"I'm just really glad I got a chance to do it, glad I got a chance to take those pictures and put down the things I've wanted to say and, mostly, to discover some things that I didn't realize I felt," he says. "One of the things that I hope came out in the book is I'm real grateful to have had many years of life in those kinds of communities, which are, in the course of events, dwindling."

He writes with a lyricism reminiscent of Robert Frost's works on New England (though he is not a big Frost fan), and with a Henry David Thoreau-esque sense of place. His Vermont is a mostly gentle place, populated by straight shooters. "In the cities, words are used to charm, to seduce, to misdirect," writes Mamet. "Here, we are expected to say what we mean; those who use words otherwise will be held accountable, perhaps considered fools."

• • •

A-list writers sign on for 'literary travel'

In spring 2002, National Geographic Directions began publishing a series of "literary travel memoirs" by well-known writers, including novelists, journalists, poets and playwrights, who were asked to "write about places that inspire or excite them or arouse their passion, interest or curiosity. The places might be halfway across the world, in the writers' own neighborhoods or places of the heart."

The hardcover books, scheduled for publication through at least 2005, will be published internationally in several languages.

So far, 28 writers have committed to the series, including Oliver Sacks (who wrote about Oaxaca, Mexico), W.S. Merwin (southwest France) and A.M. Homes (Los Angeles), whose books were released last year. Among those who have signed on but have unscheduled release dates are William Least Heat-Moon, on western Ireland.

Larry McMurtry and Paul Theroux (who lives in Hawai'i part of the year) have signed on to write about places that have not been announced yet.

Next summer's authors will include Louise Erdrich (on Lake of the Woods, Ontario) and Peter Carey on Japan.