Stretching My Mind collects for the first time ever the author’s writings on theater, literature, and the political and cultural battlegrounds that have defined his career. Many of the selections were drawn from Albee’s private papers, and almost all previously published material—dating from 1960 to the present—has never been reprinted. Topics include Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Sam Shepherd, as well as autobiographical writings about Albee’s life, work, and worldview.

Table of Contents
Foreword
On The Zoo Story (1960)
Which Theater Is The Absurd One? (1962)
Some Notes on Nonconformity (1962)
Broadway Excesses (1962)
Carson McCullers (1963)
Lillian Ross (1963)
Ad Libs on Theater (1965)
Noël Coward (1965)
James Purdy (1966)
Creativity and Commitment (1966)
The Future Belongs to Youth (1967)
…Apartheid in the Theater (1967)
The Decade of Engagement (1970)
Milton Avery (1978)
Louise Nevelson (1980)
Conversations with Catch (1981)
Mia Westerlund Roosen (1982)
Informed Joy (1988)
Is It the Dark We Have to Fear (1989)
Lee Krasner (1990)
John Duff (1990)
Robert Juarez (1990)
“Instinctive Tingle” (1990)
Zero Higashida (1991)
Eugene Ionesco (1992)
Alan Schneider (1992)
Jonathan Thomas (1993)
Some Thoughts on Sculpture (1993)
On Three Tall Women (1994)
Thirty-five Years On (1996)
A Delicate Balance: A Nonreconsideration (1996)
Interview with Steve Capra (1996)
A Playwright’s Adventures in the Visual Arts (1997)
Speech to the American Council for the Arts (1998)
Betty Parsons: A Conversation with Edward Albee, Jonathan Thomas, and Anne Cohen DePietro (1998)
Mrs. de Menil’s Liquor Closet (1999)
Context Is All: Excerpts from a Conversation with Jonathan Thomas and Harry Rand (2000)
Tony Rosenthal (2003)
Uta Hagen (2004)
Read Plays? (2004)
About This Goat (2004)
Borrowed Time: An Interview with Stephen Bottoms (2005)

Albee, Edward. Stretching My Mind: The Collected Essays 1960 to 2005. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005.