Early Life and Education
David George Nasaw was born on July 18, 1945 in Cortland, New York, the oldest son of lawyer Joshua J. Nasaw (13 August 1909 – September 1970) and Beatrice "Bea" Kaplan Nasaw (1917 – 17 January 2010), an elementary school teacher. Nasaw is the older brother of Jonathan Lewis Nasaw (b. 26 August 1947), the prolific author of at least nine thrillers; and Elizabeth Perl Nasaw (29 May 1956 – 28 February 2004), who as "Elizabeth Was" (later "Lys Was" and finally "Lyx Ish") was a poet and publisher of avant-garde magazines, and the cofounder of Xexoxial Editions and Dreamtime Village in West Lima, Wisconsin.
Nasaw grew up in Roslyn, New York, and, after a year studying in Denmark as an exchange student, graduated from Roslyn High School in 1963. Nasaw graduated from Bucknell University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1967, before enrolling in Columbia University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1972 for his dissertation "Jean-Paul Sartre: Apprenticeship in History (1925-45)".
While studying at Columbia University, for more than two years from 1970 Nasaw was one of two full-time teachers in the Elizabeth Cleaners Street School, a short-lived experimental alternative free high school founded in New York City. The experience gave rise to the book "Starting Your Own High School," written by the students and edited by Nasaw.
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