Edward Albee, the Pulitzer-winning playwright behind some of the most important and groundbreaking works of American theater and whose Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was famously snubbed by the Pulitzer advisory committee has died. He was 88.
Born in the Washington, D.C. area in 1928, Albee was adopted by Rex Albee, son of Edward Franklin Albee II, founder of the company Keith-Albee-Orpheum that was eventually taken over by Joseph P. Kennedy, then sold to RCA and turned into the major movie studio RKO pictures. Albee had a difficult childhood and as he would later recall, differed sharply from his adopted parents who, he said, disapproved of his ambition to become a writer instead of a businessman. Kicked out of several secondary schools before receiving a high school diploma, Albee spent one year at Trinity College before being expelled. He moved to Greenwich Village in New York City soon after, where he worked at various jobs while learning to write plays.
Over his nearly 50-year career, Albee advanced the art of American theater with his frank examinations of the modern condition, and more than once courted controversy for frank dialogue and themes that challenged traditional mores.
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