Edward (Franklin), (Iii) Albee Biography

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Dictionary of Literary Biography on Edward (Franklin), (Iii) Albee

Early in the twentieth century, American theater critics and drama scholars wondered where the native modern dramatists were--the American equals to Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and Anton Chekhov--and why the United States had failed to produce a theater tradition as literary and artistic as those of Great Britain, France, and Scandinavia. By the end of the century the first question, at least, could be answered: Eugene O'Neill was the first great American dramatist, followed by Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee. Subsequently, scholars have made the case that Albee, having sustained a career in the American theater for more than six decades, has joined Williams as a serious challenger to O'Neill's status as the great American playwright. Comprising more than twenty-five plays, his body of work is as extensive as Williams's, as varied in subject and form as O'Neill's, as experimental as Wilder's, and as reflective on American society as Miller's.

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