Glengarry Glen Ross was published by Grove Press in 1984 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play is set in a Chicago real estate office where four salesmen — Shelly Levene, Ricky Roma, Dave Moss, and George Aaronow — sell worthless Florida swamp land to middle-class buyers who cannot afford it. The office manager, Williamson, has posted a new sales contest on the board: first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, second prize is a set of steak knives, third prize is “you’re fired.”
The first act consists of three two-character scenes in a Chinese restaurant — each a masterclass in Mamet’s overlapping, elliptical dialogue — in which the salesmen negotiate, manipulate, and conspire. The second act is set in the office the next morning, which has been robbed: the leads (the contact cards for potential buyers) have been stolen. The investigation that follows reveals the moral architecture of the office: everyone is lying, everyone is cheating, and the system rewards exactly this behavior.
Mamet’s language is the play’s most celebrated feature — the profanity is not decoration but music, rhythmic and precise, every “fuck” placed for maximum percussive effect. The dialogue captures the peculiar eloquence of the American salesman: the ability to say nothing while appearing to say everything, to create urgency where none exists, to close a deal on a product that has no value.
The 1992 film adaptation, directed by James Foley, starred Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, and Kevin Spacey.
Collecting Glengarry Glen Ross
First edition (Grove Press, New York, 1984): Trade paperback original.
Market values:
- First edition paperback, fine: $30–$80
- UK first edition (Methuen): $40–$100
- Signed: $80–$200