Books about Elizabeth Taylor have coated her legendary (and rocky) romance with Richard Burton, her love of bijou, and her work on display screen, however Kate Andersen Brower’s new biography, Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon, is the primary to incorporate all of it—or a minimum of to take action with the blessing of Taylor’s household.
The primary-ever licensed biography of the late actress and philanthropist makes nice use of unbelievable entry to Taylor’s papers—together with never-before-published letters and diary entries—in addition to her closest family and friends members to inform a haunting, humorous, charming, and actually human story about a unprecedented girl who led an unbelievable life.
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Kate Andersen Brower’s new ebook Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon is the first-ever licensed biography of the late, legendary star.
Right here, the creator tells T&C what she realized concerning the legend, how she managed to get the place no biographer had gone earlier than, and the methods through which Taylor nonetheless managed to shock her.
That is the primary licensed biography of Elizabeth Taylor. How did that occur?
The household is admittedly very personal. They do not really need the eye. However what I attempted to convey to them is that Elizabeth Taylor is that this unbelievable icon, and we have to speak about her so that individuals keep in mind her as a result of it has been a bit greater than a decade since she handed away.
I normally write about politics, however throughout the Trump period individuals have been so divided and it wasn’t one thing I needed to cowl. Then in the future about 4 years in the past, my husband mentioned to me, “Why don’t you speak to John Warner, who lives in Virginia?” My husband went to UVA and Warner had spoken there, and my husband simply loves him, and since he was married to Elizabeth Taylor, it felt like a cool story possibly for {a magazine}.
So, I came upon attain him and I bought to take a seat there and interview him and speak about his marriage to Elizabeth. He was so insistent that somebody do a ebook about her after which that individuals do not forget her. He advised me the story of once they met within the Nineteen Seventies on the bicentennial celebration on the British Embassy, about how he escorted her to the dinner on the embassy and she or he fell in love with the thought of dwelling on his farm in Middleburg, Virginia. She needed to be Mrs. John Warner; it was like she was operating away from the Elizabeth Taylor the star and she or he needed to be married as a technique to escape and have some privateness.
Elizabeth Taylor and Senator John Warner, her then husband, collectively in New York Metropolis in 1981.
How did you get from speaking to Warner to penning this ebook, which options so many family and friends members?
Warner was shut with [Taylor’s son] Chris Wilding. Chris had lived at Warner’s Georgetown home and on the Middleburg farm when he was in his twenties, when Elizabeth and Warner have been married. And Warner mentioned, “I will name him up and inform him he ought to speak to you. Here is his telephone quantity, name him tomorrow.” So, I referred to as Chris, and he was very open to the concept that a very trustworthy ebook about his mother needs to be written. He is most likely the least guarded of the entire youngsters. Chris put me in contact with the trustees [of Taylor’s estate] and I went out to Beverly Hills to satisfy with them. They needed to know that I used to be severe and was going to work with them and be trustworthy about what I used to be doing.
A part of this being a licensed biography is that you simply have been allowed entry to issues that hadn’t been printed earlier than.
They take this very severely, and so they have an amazing variety of letters and diary entries and pictures, greater than 7,000 paperwork and greater than 10,000 images from her life, from her childhood on. I went by and selected which of them; I had entry to the whole lot.
Taylor and Michael Wilding with their sons Michael Jr (left) and Christopher, 1955.
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I centered so much on her relationship along with her husbands and her relationship along with her children as a result of I did not even know she has 4 children. All of us assume we all know Elizabeth Taylor as a result of she’s this large star, however I did not understand how weak she was, how a lot she did behind the scenes to assist individuals with AIDS who have been dying when she was taking over the trigger. She was actually doing form of a scenario the place she was funneling cash to get unlawful medication as a result of she was so determined to assist these principally homosexual males who labored for her or who have been her pals who had no different choices as a result of it was earlier than any therapies. I discovered this nice letter she wrote to an AIDS affected person who was an inside decorator; she wrote on her lavender stationary, “I hope you get out quickly so you’ll be able to redo my home in shades of lavender.” She knew he was going to die, however she needed to maintain that hope. She did issues like that on a regular basis and gaining access to that was particular.
There have been books written about Taylor’s marriages, her model, all types of very centered concepts. Once you’re capturing her complete life, what do you determine must be within the ebook?
Her life was so large and it was a bit overwhelming at sure factors to determine what would resonate with an viewers immediately.
After we have been going by the pandemic, I used to be engaged on the ebook, so I used to be enthusiastic about AIDS in that context of at the start of the pandemic when there was no remedy and folks have been dying. Additionally, I believe that lots of people endure from nervousness and to know that she really did too… She was late on a regular basis for the whole lot, and a part of that was as a result of she would put this great strain on herself to attempt to look a sure method. It took her hours to prepare—the very last thing she would do anytime she had had an occasion can be to take a shower along with her full hair and make-up performed. That social nervousness is a part of her that lots of people can relate to.
Taylor, a staunch advocate for individuals dwelling with AIDS, testifying earlier than the U.S. Senate in 1992.
For me as a lady, studying what she went by when she was with Eddie Fisher, she was referred to as a house wrecker or when she was with Richard Burton and the Vatican condemned her was so shocking. It was a puritanical period, and she or he was forward of her time. The ebook will get into that, the truth that she was a trailblazer, not solely when it got here to AIDS, but in addition as a lady who had company over her life.
Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon
Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon
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What grew to become your favourite factor about her?
The way in which she would rise up for individuals. There is a letter that she wrote to Ernest Lehman, who was a producer of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, when the director, Mike Nichols, needed to not rent any individual to whom she had promised a task. On this letter, Elizabeth writes, “You recognize you do not deal with individuals like this. I am unable to now go to my buddy and inform him he cannot be our assistant director.” She was standing up for this man who wasn’t paid something near what she was, who was not a film star., and saying, “I am not doing this. This is not proper.”
There’s a lot about her that is form of quirky. She would take her jewellery out and present it to individuals; like Demi Moore describes going to her home in Bel Air and Elizabeth simply being giddy, taking out these jewels, diamond rings, emeralds, Bulgari items, and these items that have been simply unbelievable. She would level to the emeralds and say, “These are my Friday emeralds.” And Demi Moore was like, “What’s a Friday emerald?” And he or she mentioned, “Richard would simply give me presents like this for no purpose in any respect.”
What’s your favourite Elizabeth Taylor film?
Oh, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. For certain.
Deputy Options Director
Adam Rathe is City & Nation‘s Deputy Options Director, masking arts and tradition and a variety of different topics.
