The playwright Edward Albee, who has died aged 88, was a generous supporter of fellow writers as well as visual artists, particularly those at the start of their career who needed time and space to realise their creative potential. His foundation offers just that every summer through artists' residencies in a former barn among the dunes of Montauk, Long Island. Selection is based "mostly on talent and need", it states on the foundation's website, cautioning in a deadpan way: "If you are a famous sculptor who has a large summer cottage in East Hampton but would love to 'slum it' in Montauk for a month, you are much less likely to get in than a painter who holds a terrible day job and lives in Brooklyn with [their] three roommates." Novelist with their third book deal also need not apply. Albee set a foundation in 1967 and bought the barn with proceeds from his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?