Albert Ramsdell Gurney was born in 1930 in Buffalo, New York. Educated there at the Nichols School, he entered St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire in 1944 and Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1948. He found his theatrical vocation there when he teamed up with Stephen Sondheim to write school musicals. Following graduation in 1952, he joined the U.S. Navy and produced musical variety shows on the USS Franklin Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier equipped with a band, a flight deck that doubled as a stage, and a captive audience of nearly five thousand sailors. He returned to civilian life in 1956 and in 1957, he married Mary Spaulding. They had four children. In 1958, he earned a Master of Fine Arts in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama.
Gurney then taught at a
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Citation: Sponberg, Arvid. "A. R. Gurney". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2005; last revised 18 June 2022. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5513, accessed 24 November 2024.]
