Letters | Love

Everyone is talking about the current issue of Vanity Fair and the love letters that Richard Burton wrote to Elizabeth Taylor. The letters are excerpted from Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger's new book, Furious Love:

You ask me to write the truth about us....
I suffer from a severe case of "hubris," and overweening pride.
Prometheus was punished by the gods forever and is still suffering
in all of us for inventing fire and stealing it from the gods. I am forever
punished by the gods for being given the fire and trying to put it out.
The fire, of course, is you....

Liz and Richard's love was a tumultuous one. They divorced shortly after the writing of this letter, then remarried only to divorce again. Through it all they somehow managed to remain best of friends, and continued to see each other from time to time. The Vanity Fair article states that Taylor received her last love letter from Burton just a few days after his death. She considers it to be too personal to share with the world, but it was read to Kashner and Schoenberger. In it, Burton expressed that he was not unhappy, but that he had been happiest with her. He was wondering if they might have another chance together. Heartbreaking love.