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    Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion for Life: The Wit and Wisdom of a Legend
    Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion for Life: The Wit and Wisdom of a Legend
    Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion for Life: The Wit and Wisdom of a Legend
    Ebook137 pages1 hour

    Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion for Life: The Wit and Wisdom of a Legend

    By Joseph Papa

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    About this ebook

    A beautiful, illustrated, keepsake volume of quotations by the legendary Elizabeth Taylor

    "Passion is the ingredient in me that has made me who I am. It's my passion for life...my passion for passion that has made me never give up." -- Elizabeth Taylor

    From the time she appeared in National Velvet, the film that skyrocketed her to international fame at age twelve in 1944, until her death in 2011, Elizabeth Taylor's beauty, allure, and personal strength captivated the world. In a career that spanned more than sixty years, she brought her raw talent and magnetism to bear in now-classic films such as Father of the Bride, Suddenly, Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Giant, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Off screen, she lived just as passionately. That intensity brought her enormous joy and pain -- and notoriety, whether it was from her vast collections of extraordinary fine jewelry and art to her battles with addiction and ill health, from her internationally recognized humanitarian efforts on behalf of AIDS to her scandalous love affairs and seven highly scrutinized marriages.

    This anthology -- illustrated with more than 30 gorgeous images of the star throughout her career and personal life -- reveals the candor and honesty with which the actress led her extraordinary life. Here are Elizabeth's first-person reflections on her childhood, career, love and marriages, motherhood, beauty, aging, extravagances, charity, and sense of self. Whether witty or poignant, these words are always demonstrative of her generous, unapologetic, and fiercely determined nature, reflecting the essence of a great star and legendary modern woman.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 12, 2011
    ISBN9780062106315
    Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion for Life: The Wit and Wisdom of a Legend
    Author

    Joseph Papa

    Joseph Papa is a publicist and writer living in New York City. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he is a former society page columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This is his first book.

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    Reviews for Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion for Life

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    • 3/5
      Collection of quotes from various articles and interviews. Quick read and nothing really new or insightful, but I did like the photos.
    • 3/5
      Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion For Life was not exactly what I was expecting but I still an enjoyable read. It is part biography, part quote book. The chapters tell the story of her life chronologically; each beginning with a short biographical summary of that time period and followed up by pages of large-font quotes from Elizabeth Taylor about her life (or the topic at hand).I did learn a bit more about her life from this book, and liked being able to read her own thoughts and reflections on her actions. The book is a brief overview, so for anyone who knows a lot about Elizabeth Taylor there is not going to be much that’s new here. It is very respectful in tone though, and doesn’t get gossipy at any point.One thing about the book that I wish was different is the matte black and white photos throughout. The images would have been so much more beautiful had they been glossy pages with color photos (when possible).Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion For Life would make a good gift book for those who are fans of her work. Since it is filled with large text quotes it makes for a quick and easy read.

    Book preview

    Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion for Life - Joseph Papa

    INTRODUCTION

    I haven’t had a quiet life. I’ve lived dangerously. Sometimes disaster has come at me like a train. There have been times when I’ve almost drunk myself to death. I’ve been in situations where I was perilously close to killing myself. I’ve almost died several times. Yet some instinct, some inner force, has always saved me, dragging me back just as the train whooshed past.

    —Elizabeth Taylor

    Broad. Dame. Home-wrecker. The most beautiful woman in the world: It was never easy being Elizabeth Taylor, international movie star and femme fatale. A woman of seemingly contradictory passions—as extravagant as she was generous, and as gentle as she was poised for battle—Elizabeth was often misunderstood by her adoring audience, her family, and even, at times, by herself. Her outsize flair for living brought her to the brink of disaster time and time again as she tested the outer limits of her indulgences. Nothing, it seemed, from expensive jewelry to torrid love affairs, could satiate Elizabeth’s inner desires. It was only later in life, with her dedicated charity work, that Elizabeth found the peace and stability she sought so desperately.

    But who was Elizabeth Taylor? On her own, away from the glare of the paparazzi, the adoring fans, and the many men who loved her, what made Elizabeth Taylor’s heart skip a beat? What inspired her sense of glamour, her steely inner core? To understand the elements that made Elizabeth tick, one must go back to her childhood. Her unique upbringing not only helped shape the woman she became, but also forecasted her future as one of Hollywood’s most talented stars and uncompromising beauties.

    Born in England in 1932 to a well-to-do American family with strong connections to the British upper class, Elizabeth was blessed with a beauty that made people stop and stare. Her mother, Sara, recognized Elizabeth’s alluring qualities and downplayed them, if only to emphasize the importance of personality and willpower over physical attributes. It was not until the Taylor family moved to Hollywood that Sara, a former stage actress, understood that Elizabeth’s beauty was a powerful calling card, one that gave the family a valuable entrée into the industry’s top-level studios and social circles. Sara dedicated her full attention to Elizabeth, priming her for a career in which she herself had achieved only modest success. Elizabeth learned, at an incredibly early age, that perfection in performance meant everything. She endured her mother’s strict training as preparation for a life of greatness and reluctantly accepted the fact that there was little or no margin for error. The rebellious nature and wicked tongue that would later come to define Elizabeth Taylor may have been a reaction to the intense scrutiny she suffered as a child. It seemed that everyone—from her perfectionist mother to the cadre of studio execs, agents, and audiences—were waiting and watching for Elizabeth to enter the full bloom of profitable womanhood. If there was ever a need to rebel, Elizabeth Taylor certainly had more than her share of reasons.

    By the time she was twelve years old, Elizabeth boasted an impressive resumé, having starred in Lassie Come Home and National Velvet. By the time she reached fifteen, she was an established star and, as she took on more adult roles, her costars were no longer dogs and horses, but some of Hollywood’s most desirable leading men. In 1956, she starred opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in Giant. That role firmly cemented her position as one of Hollywood’s reigning actresses, and the hits that followed came in short order: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958); Suddenly, Last Summer (1959); BUtterfield 8 (1960); and Cleopatra (1963). It was on the set of Cleopatra that Elizabeth met her greatest love, Richard Burton.

    Elizabeth and Richard ruled over Hollywood for fifteen years, predecessors to the Brangelina and TomKat hysteria that sells the tabloids today. Elizabeth’s whirlwind affair with Burton defined scandal, captured the world’s attention and imagination, and brought condemnation from the Vatican. Their relationship was punctuated by every kind of excess imaginable, from booze to brawls to total sexual abandon. It was the kind of love Elizabeth craved. Full of larger-than-life highs and profoundly crippling lows, the relationship clearly wasn’t perfect, yet that was part of its appeal. Having spent her whole life in the public eye, Elizabeth, at last, felt free. She followed her own rules and did what she pleased, relishing in

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