Edward Albee

It is not known for sure where Albee Edward was born or who his real parents were. At age two weeks he was taken from his Virginia birthplace to be adopted by Reed A. Albee, a successful theatre impresario, and Reed's wife, Frances Cotter. You may have to note in a research paper that his parents' wealth afforded Albee a privileged upbringing; his youth, "spent primarily among the well-to-do in Larchmont, New York, was filled with horses, toys, pets, and rolling landscapes," an essayist for Gay and Lesbian Biography noted, "but his education was frequently interrupted by winter vacations to warmer climates and his emotional well-being was routinely challenged by his mother's constant reminders that he was adopted." Albee's relationship with his parents was strained - a fact that would be later borne out in the highly critical parental portraits contained in his stage works.

During his preteen years Albee was sent to a preparatory school where he did not fit in. "School and Albee were not the best of friends," the Gay and Lesbian Biography essayist recounted. "Not only were his early studies at Rye Country Day School in Westchester interrupted by vacations, but he would also frequently cut classes." At age eleven Albee enrolled at Lawrenceville School, a New Jersey boarding school, where he cut classes and was soon expelled. Pennsylvania's Valley Forge Military Academy and Connecticut's Choate School followed, and at the latter he began to attract the praise of teachers due to his skills as a poet. In 1946 Albee began his studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, but after three semesters he moved back to New York City to live the life of a struggling playwright. There he sold books and records while working as an office assistant and a Western Union messenger. During this period Albee supplemented his income with a trust fund he had accepted from his maternal grandmother; his mother had rejected Albee when his homosexuality became apparent. Immersed in the city's avant garde clique, Albee became fascinated with such European "absurdist" playwrights as Eugene Ionesco and Jean Genet. Their influence - as well as that of Samuel Beckett - can be seen in Albee's first produced play, The Zoo Story, and discussed in an essay.