Edward Albee

Literature / Writers Datebook: March 12

 

 

Brief biography and works of American dramatist Edward Albee, famous for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?   

 

 

 

Edward Albee is best known for his association with the movement of the 1950s and early 1960s, known as the theater of the absurd. Aside from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, his other famous plays are The American Dream, The Zoo Story and The Sandbox.  

 

Early Life of Edward Albee

Born in Washington, D.C. on March 12, 1928, Albee was abandoned as a baby by his parents and adopted by a wealthy couple who owned a theatre chain. Despite the lavish environment he grew up with, he was unhappy. He attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut for a year.

Aged 20, Albee left home and settled in Greenwich Village, New York City. He took on various jobs. During this time, he also began to meet other authors, including Thornton Wilder and W.H. Auden. It was Wilder who suggested that he try his hand at plays.

 

The Playwright

Albee wrote his first play, The Zoo Story, when he was 30. He wrote it for just three weeks. The play failed to attract attention in New York, however, Albee's roommate sent a copy of it to a friend in Europe, where it had its premiere in 1959.

 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 

Albee's first full-length three-act play was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, produced when Albee was 34. Claimed to be his greatest success, it won him international fame and several awards. Like many Albee's plays, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? centers on family relationships, in particular, the complex relationship between a history professor and his wife. The famous author Virginia Woolf has nothing to do with the play.

 

Honors and Awards

Among other honours, Albee has won three Pulitzer Prizes – for A Delicate Balance in 1967, Seascape in 1975 and Three Tall Women in 1994.

 

Major Works by Edward Albee

The Zoo Story, 1959

The Sandbox, 1959

The American Dream, 1960

The Death of Bessie Smith, 1960

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1962

The Ballad of the Sad Café, 1963, adapted from Carson McCullers novela

Tiny Alice, 1964

Malcolm, 1965, adapted from James Purdy's novel

A Delicate Balance, 1966

Breakfast at Tiffany's 1966

Box-Mao-Box, 1968

Seascape, 1975

The Lady from Dubuque, 1977-1979

Lolita, 1981, adapted from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov

The Man Who Had Three Arms, 1981

Marriage Play, 1986-1987

Three Tall Women, 1994

The Play About the Baby, 1996

The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, 2002

Peter & Jerry, 2004

 

Photo Credit:

Edward Albee. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain. Photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1961.

Resources: 

American Academy of Achievement. 

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh: Chambers, Harrap Publishers, 2002

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. New York: Larousse, 1994

Edward Albee. en.wikipedia.org 

(c) March 2009. Updated March 12, 2024. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: March 18

 

Brief biography of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, master in orchestration with strong Russian flavour and colour. He was a member of 'The Five' 19^th-century Russian nationalist composers with a gift for lively and colorful orchestration, and known for fairy tale subjects.

 

 

Nikolai (Nikolay) Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer and conductor, was born in Tikhvin on March 18, 1844. He was a Russian nationalist and the youngest member of 'The Five' or 'the Mighty Handful,' a group of 19th-century Russian composers organized by Mily Balakirev.  

   

Early Years

Rimsky-Korsakov was born into an aristocratic family and had conventional music education. His initial ambition was to be a sailor, a naval officer. In 1856, he entered the Corps of Naval Cadets in St. Petersburg but while at sea he had pianoforte lessons, he even composed a symphony. He also attended opera and concerts. Greatly influenced by Balakirev and deeply impressed by Glinka’s nationalist works, he showed great promise in his musical ability especially in orchestration. 

Career beginnings

At 27, the professorship of composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire was offered to him. He accepted the position aware that he was unqualified. Secretly, he began his self-imposed study especially in harmony and counterpoint. About this time, he married a fellow musician, Nadezhda Purgold, also a composer but superior to him.

Music output

It was in 1882 that his work, in particular, an opera The Snow Maiden that showed a new, personal clever voice with some fantasy blended with comedy. The next few years nothing much happened in terms of his musical output. However, after six years, he produced the successful Spanish Capriccio, encored at its first presentation.  With its success, this was followed by Russian Easter Festival Overture and the symphonic suite Scheherazade, an exotic music derived from the famous classic tale Thousand and One Night.  His mastery of orchestration is demonstrated in all three compositions.

 

Featured video:Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade op.35, with Leif Segerstam conducting Sinfónica de Galicia.  Youtube, accessed March 18, 2024.