Albee, Edward (Franklin, III)

Albee, Edward [Franklin, III] (b. 1928), playwright. The adopted grandson of the vaudeville magnate E. F. Albee, he was born in Washington, D. C., and suffered an unhappy youth, which included being enrolled and removed from a number of schools, briefly attending Trinity College, and assuming a series of odd jobs that ranged from Western Union delivery boy to salesclerk. When early attempts at writing poetry were unrewarding, he turned to playwriting at the suggestion of Thornton Wilder. His first play, The Zoo Story, was initially produced in Germany in 1959, then in America a year later. In The Sandbox (1960), he tells how an exasperated Mommy and Daddy leave Grandma on a beach to await the coming of Death in the guise of a young boy. The American Dream (1961), in which parents kill their disappointing child, and The Death of Bessie Smith (1961), a dramatization of the singer's last hours, were well received. His study of a troubled marriage, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), was roundly praised and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the next year saw his adaptation of Carson McCullers's The Ballad of the Sad Café reach Broadway. Critics and audiences alike were baffled by Tiny Alice (1964), in which the richest woman in the world seduces and destroys a Catholic lay brother. In 1966 his dramatization of a novel, Malcolm, and his libretto for Breakfast at Tiffany's were unfavorably received, but A Delicate Balance had a modest run. A series of interesting failures followed: Everything in the Garden (1967), All Over (1971), Seascape (1975), The Lady from Dubuque (1980), and The Man Who Had Three Arms (1983). Albee's career took a positive turn with the award‐winning Three Tall Women (1994), followed by the well‐received The Play About the Baby (2001) and The Goat (2002). Albee's plays have dealt with his unique miasma of fantasy and reality, and his figures' inability to come to terms with this sometimes frightening combination. His bent has been largely confrontational and philosophic, but beneath his work lies a disturbed sexuality. Biography: Edward Albee: A Singular Journey, Mel Gussow, 2000.