Editing Edward Albee (section)

==Early life==
Edward Albee was born in 1928. His biological father left his mother, Louise Harvey, and he was placed for adoption two weeks later and taken to Larchmont, New York, where he grew up.<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Albee {{!}} American author {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Albee |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=September 13, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> Albee's adoptive father, [[Reed A. Albee]], the wealthy son of [[vaudeville]] magnate [[Edward Franklin Albee II|Edward Franklin Albee&nbsp;II]], owned several theaters. His adoptive mother, Reed's second wife, Frances (Cotter), was a socialite.<ref name="TimesObit">{{cite news|last1=Weber|first1=Bruce|title=Edward Albee, Trenchant Playwright for a Desperate Era, Dies at 88|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/arts/edward-albee-playwright-of-a-desperate-generation-dies-at-88.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 17, 2016}}</ref><ref name="theguardianobit">{{cite news|title=Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? playwright, dies aged 88|first=Vanessa|last=Thorpe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/16/edward-albee-dies-playwright-whos-afraid-virginia-woolf|access-date=September 17, 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=September 17, 2016}}</ref> He later based the main character of his 1991 play ''[[Three Tall Women]]'' on his mother, with whom he had a conflicted relationship.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/15/specials/albee-larchmont.html|title=Albee Mines His Larchmont Childhood|first=Dan| last=Markowitz|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 28, 1994|access-date=March 8, 2017}}</ref>

Albee attended the Rye Country Day School, then the [[Lawrenceville School]] in New Jersey, from which he was expelled.<ref name="TimesObit" /> He then was sent to [[Valley Forge Military Academy]] in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he was dismissed in less than a year.<ref name="Playbill-obit">{{cite web|author-link1=Robert Simonson|last1=Simonson|first1=Robert|title=Edward Albee, Towering American Playwright, Dies at 88|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/edward-albee-towering-american-playwright-dies-at-88|website=Playbill|date=September 16, 2016|access-date=September 17, 2016}}</ref> He enrolled at [[The Choate School]] (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in [[Wallingford, Connecticut]],<ref name="latimesobit">{{cite news|last1=Boehm|first1=Mike|title=Edward Albee, three-time Pulitzer-winning playwright and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' author, dies at 88|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-edward-albee-obit-20160916-snap-story.html|access-date=September 17, 2016|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=September 16, 2016}}</ref> graduating in 1946.  He had attracted theatre attention by having scripted and published nine poems, eleven short stories, essays, a long act play, ''Schism'', and a 500-page novel, ''The Flesh of Unbelievers'' (Horn, 1) in 1946. His formal education continued at [[Trinity College (Connecticut)|Trinity College]] in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was expelled in 1947 for skipping classes and refusing to attend compulsory chapel.<ref name="latimesobit"/>

Albee left home for good in his late teens. In a later interview, he said: "I never felt comfortable with the adoptive parents. I don't think they knew how to be parents. I probably didn't know how to be a son, either."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-albee/#interview |title=Edward Albee Interview |publisher=Academy of Achievement |date=June 2, 2005 |access-date=May 21, 2012}}</ref> In a 1994 interview, he said he left home at 18 because "[he] had to get out of that stultifying, suffocating environment."<ref name=":0" /> In 2008, he told interviewer [[Charlie Rose]] that he was "thrown out" because his parents wanted him to become a "corporate thug" and did not approve of his aspirations to be a writer.<ref>{{Charlie Rose view|1004}}, May 27, 2008.</ref>