Finding Aid for Edward Albee scripts, 1949-1966.

• Descriptive Summary
• Biographical Note:
• Scope and Content Note:
• Organization and Arrangement:
• Container Listing

Access:

Access is restricted. The written permission of Edward Albee is necessary for access to this collection. Further written permission is required if quotations are desired.

Publication Rights:

For permission to publish contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Preferred Citation:

Edward Albee Scripts, *T Mss 1964-003, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Custodial History:

The Edward Albee Scripts were given to the Billy Rose Theatre Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts by Edward Albee beginning in 1964.

Processing Information:

The Edward Albee Scripts were originally cataloged under the library's RM classification system, but were recataloged in 1998 into the library's online database

Edward Franklin Albee III was born on March 12, 1928, probably in Virginia, and adopted by Reed A. and Frances (Cotter) Albee shortly after his birth. The Albees, a wealthy family with theatrical connections, lived in Larchmont, New York. Albee grew up alienated by his parents' lifestyle and struck out on his own, moving to Greenwich Village, NY, after three semesters at Trinity College. He had various jobs; his favorite was as a messenger for Western Union, before achieving his first success in 1959 with a German language production in Berlin of his play, The Zoo Story. His best known work, which scandalized Broadway in 1962 and established him as America's most acclaimed young playwright, is Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?.

In 1963 Albee, with Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder, began producing new plays by new playwrights at a theater they rented in Greenwich Village and thus were a part of the burgeoning Off-Off Broadway movement. In 1964 Albee created the Edward Albee Foundation, a summer retreat at Montauk, Long Island, which provides living and working space for six artists. Albee has taught playwriting at various colleges and often directs his own plays. After the 1960s his writing became less prolific and less well received. For many years he has been more popular in Europe than in America. However, he has won numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize three times: for A Delicate Balance in 1967, Seascape in 1975 and Three Tall Women in 1994.

The collection consists entirely of scripts of original plays and adaptations from the early career of the playwright Edward Albee. It includes typescripts and proofs, many with handwritten revisions, and in various versions. Plays included in the collection are The Zoo Story, The Death Of Bessie Smith, The American Dream, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Fam and Yam, Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance, Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao, and the adaptations: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Malcolm, Everything in the Garden, and a musical adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Also contains some unfinished and untitled manuscripts, including a few that are entirely handwritten. There is, however, no copy of The Sandbox, an Albee play from this period, in the collection.

The collection, in one series, scripts, is arranged alphabetically by title. Within a title, they are arranged in the order of their former RM (cataloging) numbers.

Articles, poems and short stories, mostly unpublished, and an unfinished novel, with many editorial corrections, are held by the Manuscripts and Archives Division of The New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.