The Richard Burton Diaries - Softcover

Burton, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300197284 ISBN 13: 9780300197280

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2013

Synopsis

The irresistible, candid diaries of Richard Burton, published in their entirety for the first time

Irresistibly magnetic on stage, mesmerizing in movies, seven times an Academy Award nominee, Richard Burton rose from humble beginnings in Wales to become Hollywood's most highly paid actor and one of England's most admired Shakespearean performers. His epic romance with Elizabeth Taylor, his legendary drinking and story-telling, his dazzling purchases (enormous diamonds, a jet, homes on several continents), and his enormous talent kept him constantly in the public eye. Yet the man behind the celebrity façade carried a surprising burden of insecurity and struggled with the peculiar challenges of a life lived largely in the spotlight. This volume publishes Burton's extensive personal diaries in their entirety for the first time. His writings encompass many years—from 1939, when he was still a teenager, to 1983, the year before his death—and they reveal him in his most private moments, pondering his triumphs and demons, his loves and his heartbreaks. The diary entries appear in their original sequence, with annotations to clarify people, places, books, and events Burton mentions. From these hand-written pages emerges a multi-dimensional man, no mere flashy celebrity. While Burton touched shoulders with shining lights—among them Olivia de Havilland, John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, Laurence Olivier, John Huston, Dylan Thomas, and Edward Albee—he also played the real-life roles of supportive family man, father, husband, and highly intelligent observer. His diaries offer a rare and fresh perspective on his own life and career, and on the glamorous decades of the mid-twentieth century.

About this title

About the Author:

Chris Williams is professor of Welsh history, director of the Research Institute for Arts and Humanities, and deputy director of the College of Arts and Humanities, Swansea University. He lives in Swansea, Wales.

Review:

"Come to this volume for the love story, stay for the lit talk. . . .Burton’s diaries, published now for the first time, are filled with . . . pocket-size delights. . . But I admired this complicated and fairly remarkable book for its deeper and more insinuating qualities as well.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

  (Dwight Garner The New York TImes)

"The Richard Burton Diaries. Just great fun, and written out of an engaging, often comical bewilderment: How did a poor Welshman become not only a star, but a player on the world stage that was Elizabeth Taylor’s fame? As a kind of celebrity Pilgrim’s Progress, it is very tender without missing the fact that show business is hard."—Hilton Als, NewYorker.com  (Hilton Als NewYorker.com)

“Of real interest is that Burton was almost as good a writer as an actor, read as many as three books a day, haunted bookstores in every city he set foot in, bought countless books on every conceivable subject and evaluated them rather shrewdly. . . Apt writing abounds. . . His love of language is also displayed dazzlingly in the recurrent loving tributes to Elizabeth. True, he also records their fights, but these are quickly forgotten by him after a good walk, and by both of them after a night’s sleep. Much more frequent and pertinent are the love declarations.” —John Simon, The New York Times Book Review  (John Simon The New York Times Book Review)

“The Richard Burton who emerges from these diaries is a far better man than even his wildest fan might have expected. He’s so sensitive, intelligent, deeply well-read and supremely well-informed that you can almost kid yourself he’d have been fun to have to dinner. It would be absurd, of course, to call his a model life. But nobody who has read this book could call it a wasted one.” —Christopher Bray, The Wall Street Journal  (Christopher Bray The Wall Street Journal)

“These diaries offer a delightfully unvarnished glimpse at the actor's life, from his reading habits and jet-setting to his tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth Taylor.” —The Los Angeles Times  (The Los Angeles Times)

"Diaries? Autobiography? Time will tell, and may surprise."—Emlyn Williams, at Richard Burton's Memorial Service, London, August 1984 (Emplyn Williams)

"Full of surprises and revelations."—The Bookseller (The Bookseller 2012-07-13)

“Fun, fascinating, and sad.”—Liz Smith

(Liz Smith Newyorksocialdiary.com)

"The inspiring, salacious, sad, materialistic, insecure, arrogant, hilarious and dull ruminations of a most gifted actor. . . . A text that thrums with life and assures the rest is not silence."—Kirkus Review, starred review (Kirkus Reviews)

"The words reveal someone who is reflective and thoughtful and someone who engaged intellectually with the world around him. It's not just the ale-and-women kind of image... His diaries reveal a man who thought deeply about the world - past, present and future. Richard Burton was in search of 'what it all meant', but found little comfort in the lessons of history... In 1970 he wrote: 'I love the world but if I take it too seriously I shall go mad.'"—Simon de Bruxelles, The Times (London) (Simon de Bruxelles The Times 2012-08-15)

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0300197284
• ISBN 13: 9780300197280
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 704
• Editor: Williams Chris