Award-winning playwright Edward Albee, who penned classics including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, has died at the age of 88.

According to local media citing his personal assistant Jakob Holder, he died on Friday at his home in Montauk, New York, following a short illness.

His provocative and often unforgiving takes on life in the US earned him a reputation as one of the great American dramatists.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? left audiences shocked when it first opened on Broadway in 1962 for its brutal depiction of a ravaged marriage. It went on to win a Tony Award for best play, had two revivals and was translated to a big screen movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Albee also won Pulitzer Prizes for 1967's A Delicate Balance, 1975's Seascape and 1991's Three Tall Women.