The Literary Love of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

Since the release of “Wuthering Heights,” audiences have once again found themselves thinking about another famously passionate partnership: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Comparisons between the characters of Catherine and Heathcliff and the real-life tempestuous romance between Elizabeth and Richard are not new. But what’s often overlooked is how literature itself shaped the world they shared. For Elizabeth and Richard, books, plays, and language were all elements inherent to their love story. 

In 1964, the pair hosted “World Enough and Time," a pose and poetry reading to benefit the American Musical and Dramatic Academy of New York. The event was held at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where Burton was appearing onstage in Hamlet. The evening proved to be a resounding success, and also marked Elizabeth’s stage debut. 

Richard, with his resonant voice and classical theater training, was widely considered one of the greatest interpreters of Shakespeare of his generation. Elizabeth admired that side of him, encouraging and celebrating his theatrical work, and the two actors performed together in adaptations of Shakespeare’s work. Later, in 1967’s The Taming of the Shrew, the couple brought their undeniable chemistry to Shakespeare’s battle-of-wills comedy. Watching them as Petruchio and Katharina feels like getting a peek into their real-life fiery dynamic. 

At that point, the pair had already appeared together in another literary film: 1966’s Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, adapted from the play by Edward Albee and named for the influential English writer. In the film, Elizabeth and Richard portrayed the unraveling marriage of Martha and George, a pair bound together by intellect, cruelty, vulnerability, and a deep, complicated love. This became one of the most celebrated performances of Elizabeth’s career, earning her a second Academy Award and cementing the pair’s reputation as one of cinema’s most electric co-stars.

In 1968, the couple worked with another towering literary figure in Boom!: the playwright Tennessee Williams. The writer adapted his own play The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore for the film, which starred Elizabeth as the enigmatic Flora “Sissy” Goforth opposite Richard as the mysterious Chris Flanders.

For his entire life, Richard was a voracious reader and a formidable literary mind, even harboring aspirations of being a writer himself. He kept detailed diaries, and spoke openly about his desire to create work of his own beyond acting. Language mattered profoundly to him, in his performances and as a craft he honed. Elizabeth once purchased the entire Everyman's Library — which consisted of hundreds of volumes of classic literature — for him, the perfect gift to support his intellect and curiosity.

Perhaps the most intimate literary artifact of their relationship was the one they created together. Throughout their courtship, separations, marriages, and even after divorce, Elizabeth and Richard wrote a number of letters to each other. Their letters were often passionate, witty, and intensely personal, revealing a relationship sustained by their words. 

At the heart of the enduring love between Elizabeth and Richard was a relationship shaped by the written word. Their lives together unfolded like a story drawn from the pages of classic literature — like Catherine and Heathcliff, only this time, the lovers wrote the story themselves.