Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon
Written by Kate Andersen Brower
Narrated by Eleanor Caudill
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Residence and First Women, the first ever authorized biography of the most famous movie star of the twentieth century, Elizabeth Taylor.
No celebrity rivals Elizabeth Taylor’s glamour and guts or her level of fame. She was the last major star to come out of the old Hollywood studio system and she is a legend known for her beauty and her magnetic screen presence in a career that spanned most of the twentieth century and nearly sixty films. But her private life was even more compelling than her Oscar-winning on-screen performances. During her seventy-nine years of rapid-fire love and loss she was married eight times to seven different men. Above all, she was a survivor—by the time she was twenty-six she was twice divorced and once widowed. Her life was a soap opera that ended in a deeply meaningful way when she became the first major celebrity activist to lead the fight against HIV/AIDS. A co-founder of amfAR, she raised more than $100 million for research and patient care. She was also a shrewd businesswoman who made a fortune as the first celebrity perfumer who always demanded to be paid what she was worth.
In the first ever authorized biography of the Hollywood icon, Kate Andersen Brower reveals the world through Elizabeth’s eyes. Brower uses Elizabeth’s unpublished letters, diary entries, and off-the-record interview transcripts as well as interviews with 250 of her closest friends and family to tell the full, unvarnished story of her remarkable career and her explosive private life that made headlines worldwide. Elizabeth Taylor captures this intelligent, empathetic, tenacious, volatile, and complex woman as never before, from her rise to massive fame at age twelve in National Velvet to becoming the first to negotiate a million-dollar salary for a film, from her eight marriages and enduring love affair with Richard Burton to her lifelong battle with addiction and her courageous efforts as an AIDS activist.
Here is a fascinating and complete portrait worthy of the legendary star and her legacy.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Editor's Note
The woman behind the icon…
You may think you know Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor, but besides her beauty and glamor and behind her eight marriages and shocking headlines was a woman who unapologetically knew her own worth — and the worth of those in need. In the very first authorized biography of Taylor’s life, Brower (“Exploring the White House,” “First Women”) draws on archived letters and photos plus interviews with friends and family to explore the real Taylor, including her work in HIV/AIDS research, prevention, and advocacy.
Kate Andersen Brower
Kate Andersen Brower is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Residence, First Women—also a New York Times bestseller—and First in Line. She is a CNN contributor who covered the Obama White House for Bloomberg News and is a former CBS News staffer and Fox News producer. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and the Washington Post. She lives outside Washington, D.C., with her husband and their three young children.
Related to Elizabeth Taylor
Related audiobooks
Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D' Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chita: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dying of Politeness: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marked for Life: One Man's Fight for Justice from the Inside Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss del Río Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mussolini's Daughter: The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5README.txt: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope and Fallout of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paris: The Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anon Pls.: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Philosophy of Modern Song Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts: Mini-Meditations for Saints, Sinners, and the Rest of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hello, Molly!: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Do We Know Ourselves?: Curiosities and Marvels of the Human Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Karma: My Autobiography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Cousin Maria Schneider: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Entertainers and the Rich & Famous For You
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paris: The Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Down the Drain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tell Me Everything: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Boys Are Poisonous: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Open Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is this Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inside Out: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whiskey in a Teacup Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5BRITNEY: Breaking Free Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Happy People Are Annoying Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hello, Molly!: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We're Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Elizabeth Taylor
23 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating life that outshone her career.The good that she did roll not be forgotten. What a broad.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written! I learned so much about her. The narrator had a soothing voice. Kept me listening to her. Hard to turn it off. If you like stories about Elizabeth or the old/time Hollywood of which she was a part, you will not be disappointed.
1 person found this helpful