Edward Albee's Unfinished Works Will Be Destroyed at His Request

The late, great playwright Edward Albee is curating his legacy posthumously via "dead hand control."

He has requested in his will that any incomplete manuscripts he left behind be destroyed, according to an article in The New York Times.

Whether the executors of his estate, accountant Arnold Torn and designer William Katz, will or have already carried out the request remains to be seen. But so far they have remained true to the playwright's other wishes, including denying the casting of a black actor in an Oregon production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, despite the controversy surrounding the decision.

Albee's final, unseen work, Laying an Egg, a play about a middle-aged woman trying to become pregnant, would be one of the projects destroyed. The script was to be staged at Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre, but Albee back-tracked and withdrew twice because "it wasn't ready."

It is uncertain whether Albee had any other unfinished works in his dossier, or whether his request also includes drafts of his now-renowned plays.

Sotheby's is also set to auction off more than 100 artworks from Albee's personal collection with an estimated worth of more than $9 million. The takings from the fall event will benefit Albee's foundation.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee passed away in 2016 at the age of 88 in his sleep at his home in Montauk, Long Island.

Albee was born on March 12, 1928, and began writing plays 30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958); The Death of Bessie Smith (1959); The Sandbox (1959); The American Dream(1960); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award, 2012-2013 Tony Award); Tiny Alice (1964); A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize, 1966 Tony Award); All Over (1971); Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize); Listening (1975); Counting the Ways (1975); The Lady From Dubuque (1977-78); The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981); Finding the Sun (1982); Marriage Play (1986-87); Three Tall Women(1991, Pulitzer Prize); Fragments (1993); The Play About the Baby(1997); The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2000, 2002 Tony Award); Occupant (2001); and At Home At the Zoo: (Act 1, Homelife; Act 2, The Zoo Story.) (2004); Me, Myself and I (2010).

Albee was the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes for "A Delicate Balance," "Seascape" and "Three Tall Women." He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and president of the Edward F. Albee Foundation. Mr. Albee was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980. In 1996 he received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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