Edward Albee was born in Washington, DC on March 12, 1928. When he was two weeks old, Albee was adopted by millionaire couple Reed and Frances Albee. The Albees named their son after his paternal grandfather, Edward Franklin Albee, a powerful producer who had made the family fortune as a partner in the Keith-Albee theater circuit. Young Edward was raised by his adoptive parents in Westchester, New York. Due to his father and grandfather's involvement in the theater world, Albee was exposed to theater and famous people during his childhood. From the beginning, Albee's mother, Frances, tried to train her son to become a respectable member of New York society. The Albees' wealth meant that Albee's childhood was filled with servants and guardians. The family Rolls Royce took him to afternoon matinees, he took riding lessons, vacationed in Miami in the winter and learned to sail on Long Island in the summer. In 1940, twelve-year-old Albee entered the Lawrenceville School, a prestigious boys' school. «preparatory school. During his high school days, he shocked school officials by writing a three-act sex act called Aliqueen. At age fifteen, the Lawrenceville School fired Albee for skipping class. Hoping to inspire his son in some discipline, Reed Albee enrolled Albee at Valley Forge Military Academy. Within a year, Valley Forge had also fired Albee. Eventually, Albee attended Choate from 1944 to 1946. Even as a teenager, Edward Albee presented himself as a prolific writer. In 1945, his poem "Eighteen" was published in the Texas literary magazine Kaleidoscope. During his senior year at Choate, Edward's first published play about Albee appeared in the school's literary magazine. After graduating from Choate, Albee enrolled in Trinity College, a small liberal arts school in Hartford, Connecticut. While there, Edward annoyed his mother by associating with artists she found unacceptable. During his days at Trinity College, Albee gained much theatrical experience, although it was as an actor, rather than as a writer. During his sophomore year, 1947, nineteen-year-old Albee was dismissed from another school. This time, Trinity College claimed he missed chapel and some classes. Despite his mother's objections, Albee moved to New York's artistic Greenwich Village at the age of twenty. He supported himself by writing musical programs for the radio. In 1953, young Albee met playwright Thornton Wilder. Later, he credited Wilder with inspiring him to become a playwright.