Gurney, A. R. (Albert Ramsdell Gurney, Jr.), 1930–2017, American dramatist, b. Buffalo, N.Y., B.A. Williams College, 1952, M.F.A. Yale School of Drama, 1958. He is best known for often humorous analyses of the decline of the well-to-do white Anglo-Saxon Protestant society of his youth. His more than 30 plays include Scenes from American Life (1971), The Dining Room (1982), The Middle Ages (1982), The Cocktail Hour (1988), Love Letters (1989), and Sylvia (1995). He also wrote several novels and screenplays and taught (1960–96) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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