As a “30th birthday present” to himself, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Franklin Albee III (1928–2016) quit his job with Western Union and began writing full-time.

Three weeks later, he completed The Zoo Story (1960), which immediately established him as a bold, imaginative voice in American theater. Albee’s short, probing dramas blended fantasy and realism, often challenging audiences with themes of alienation and truth.

“The difference between critics and audiences is that one is a group of humans and one is not,” quipped the outspoken writer.

He gained international fame with the 1962 play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a brilliant dissection of marriage, cruelty, and emotional illusion. “I have a fine sense of the ridiculous,” he wrote, “but no sense of humor.”

Critic Ruby Cohn called Albee “the most skillful composer of dialogue that America has produced.” Albee explained that he fully conceived a play before writing: “When a play enters my consciousness, it is already a fairly well-developed fetus.”

To him, being creative was enough. “The thing that makes a creative person is to be creative and that is all there is to it,” he once said.

In recognition of his remarkable voice, Edward Albee was honored among the Top 100 Writers of All Time by Writer’s Digest. His work continues to shape modern theater and challenge the boundaries of language and truth.