Edward Albee

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Edward Albee
Edward Albee in the 1980s
Edward Albee in the 1980s
Born(1928-03-12)March 12, 1928
Washington, D.C., U.S.
DiedSeptember 16, 2016(2016-09-16) (aged 88)
Montauck, New York, U.S.
OccupationDramatist
NationalityAmerican
Period1958–2016
Notable works
Notable awardsPulitzer Prize for Drama (1967, 1975, and 1994)
Tony Award (1963 and 2002)
National Medal of Arts (1996)
Special Tony Award (2005)

Edward Franklin Albee III (/ˈɔːlb/ AWL-bee; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright. He was known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), and a rewrite of the book for the unsuccessful musical Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966), an adaptation of Truman Capote's 1958 novella of the same name.[1]

In 1963, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won the Tony Award for Best Play.[2] He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1967 for A Delicate Balance, in 1975 for Seascape, and in 1994 for Three Tall Women.[3]

Albee was openly gay and stated that he first knew he was gay at age 12 and a half.[4]

Albee died on September 16, 2016 at his home in Montauck, New York from complications of diabetes, aged 88.[5]

Works[change | change source]

Plays[change | change source]

Works written or adapted by Albee:[6]

  • The Zoo Story (1959)
  • The Death of Bessie Smith (1960)
  • The Sandbox (1960)
  • Fam and Yam (1960)
  • The American Dream (1961)
  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962)
  • Tiny Alice (1964)
  • A Delicate Balance (1966)
  • Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (1968)
  • All Over (1971)
  • Seascape (1975)
  • Listening (1976)
  • Counting the Ways (1976)
  • The Lady from Dubuque (1980)
  • The Man Who Had Three Arms (1982)
  • Finding the Sun (1983)
  • Walking (1984)
  • Envy (1985)
  • Marriage Play (1987)
  • Three Tall Women (1991)
  • The Lorca Play (1992)
  • Fragments (1993)
  • The Play About the Baby (1998)
  • The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2000)
  • Occupant (2001)
  • Knock! Knock! Who's There!? (2003)
  • Me Myself and I (2007)
  • At Home at the Zoo (2009)

Adaptations[change | change source]

  • The Ballad of the Sad Café (1963) (adapted from the novella by Carson McCullers)
  • Malcolm (1966) (adapted from the novel by James Purdy)
  • Breakfast at Tiffany's (adapted from the novel by Truman Capote) (1966)
  • Everything in the Garden (adapted from the play by Giles Cooper) (1967)
  • Lolita (adapted from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov) (1981)

Opera libretti[change | change source]

  • Bartleby (adapted from the short story by Herman Melville) (1961)
  • The Ice Age (1963, uncompleted)

Essays[change | change source]

  • Stretching My Mind: Essays 1960–2005 (2005).

References[change | change source]

  1. "Biography and Video Interview of Edward Albee at Academy of Achievement". Achievement.org. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  2. "Winners". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  3. "Drama". The Pulitzer Prizes. 2023. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  4. Shulman, Randy (March 10, 2011). "Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?". Metro Weekly. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014.
  5. Howard, Adam (September 16, 2016). "Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright Edward Albee Dead at 88". NBC News. Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  6. "Works". Edward Albee Society. Retrieved September 20, 2016.

Other websites[change | change source]

Media related to Edward Albee at Wikimedia Commons