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Showing posts with label biography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biography. Show all posts

Friday, January 18, 2013

Stand Up

 A few years ago I encountered the Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson. Reading it, I was amazed at the compassion he felt for fellow human beings, despite beatings, threats, and other severe mistreat-ments. He practiced non-violent protest at all times and called upon others to do so as well. I remember the inspiration Dr. King had on me at that point, and that feeling has stayed with me.

Nowadays, I am reading a children's book about Martin Luther King, Jr. to my son, and it makes me very happy to assist in explaining what he stood for and what he helped to accomplish. However, the conversation of why he had to stand up for social justice is a sobering conversation to have with an almost 4 year-old. I hope to continue discussion with my son about Dr. King as we celebrate the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this coming Monday (yes, the library will be open).

The following is a quote by Dr. King that I continually come back to in my life, and it really helps me stay the course through difficult times: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." I encourage you to investigate Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. a little closer, either this weekend or sometime soon, even if it's just to explore a little context around some of his quotes. My hope is that you come away refreshed with a sense of peace and compassion and energized to go out and achieve positive change. I would certainly recommend his Letter from Birmingham Jail as a quality read in that vein.

"Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Furious, Drunken, Obsessive Love


When Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were making the movie, Cleopatra, their days were filled with sex, booze, Roman villas and yachts off the Amalfi coast. How was your day at work?

In the new biography, Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century, the authors paint of picture of a love affair like no other - the infamous coupling of the most famous movie stars on the planet. Their love, their lust, their wealth, their beauty - all on display for an international audience who couldn't get enough of "LizN'Dick."

The story starts in Rome (where else?) when the biggest box office star in the world, Elizabeth Taylor casts aside her new husband Eddie Fisher for her leading man, the Welsh-born Richard Burton. Soon, their indiscretions are captured by the hordes of Italian paparazzi, and Le Scandale as Burton named it, is plastered across every tabloid and screen in the world. Even the Pope notices: he condemns their love affair and denounces Taylor's "erotic vagrancy."

Once they divorce their respective spouses, his first, her fourth, the Burtons nestle into their home sweet home , or more accurately, homes. The Burtons like to spend money, but not pay taxes which means that can not spend too much time in either America or Great Britain, lest they pay their fair share. There are chateaus in Gstaad and Celigny, Switzerland, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 685 acres in the Canary Islands, 10 acres in Ireland, long stays at the Dorchester Hotel in London and of course, their yacht.

They made many movies together, most notably Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Taylor won her second Oscar but Burton was rebuked for the award for a fifth time. (Richard Burton still holds the record for most Oscar nominations without a win - seven.)

They were so successful, when they contemplated going on a short hiatus in 1968, the industry broke out in a sweat; "nearly half of the U.S. film industry's income... came from pictures starring one of both of them." In fact, during the decade of their marriage, the Burtons would amass more that 615 million dollars in today's market, with the lion's share going to furs, diamonds, original works of art, clothes, travel, food, liquor, a yacht and their private jet. Take that Brad and Angelina!

In the end, however, alcohol and self-loathing trumped love and wealth. Burton drank openly when he worked, and he was one nasty drunk. Taylor was a bit better, but for all her professed love for Richard, she wouldn't stop drinking when he finally went on the wagon. They divorced. They remarried. They re-divorced. Then they married other people.

Years later, Liz N' Dick would appear in a stage version of Noel Coward's Private Lives, a play about formerly married people who run into each other on their respective honeymoons. Elizabeth believed that they would marry again, and Richard confessed to many that she was the love of his life but a third marriage was not to be. Burton dropped dead of a cerebral hemorrhage.

There is one new bit of information that Elizabeth Taylor, now 78 , told these biographers. Two days after Burton died, she received a love letter from him. She put it on her night table, where it has remained for the last 26 years.



Thursday, March 5, 2009

I Am Not a Crook


But he was of course, wasn't he?

A few weeks ago I was completely immersed in the politics of 40 years ago. I saw Frost/Nixon in the theaters, watched Nixon at home, and read Nixonland every free minute. 2008 was an election year, and politics is still very much on everyone's mind. John Adams won multiple Emmys, and our new President has four books on the audiobook bestseller list.

I was an indifferent history student in school. I never met a textbook that didn't put me to sleep, full of dry paragraphs and small pictures of middle-aged white men who looked like their teeth hurt. I couldn't connect the dates and events in my mind in any linear way. It wasn't until I started reading historical fiction that I began to understand history as people: making difficult choices, acting as their conscience or their fears drove them.

But some people are too big for fiction. Nixon is a character only real life could create. Smart but never charming, deeply faithful in marriage but terribly profane in speech. He felt victimized even as he betrayed others, lied constantly while professing honesty. He abused power in many, many ways, and yet he remains one of the most interesting presidents we've had. Perhaps you've heard the saying, "Only Nixon could go to China." Only a politician so obviously and fiercely anti-Communist could make the overture to Mao without being perceived as soft on Communism.

When I walk the shelves in U. S. History, the major events of the last 200 years leap out at you. Here are the wars, the "conflicts", the great acts of legislation and social upheaval. I was a little surprised this afternoon to see how many books there are on the Iraq war. Thanks to Watergate and Alger Hiss and the Nixon/Kennedy debates and Vietnam, there are dozens of books on our 37th president. You can even watch the original Frost/Nixon interviews if you've a mind to.

I reassure myself that though I may not watch the news, I am still political - because I visit the 970s (U. S. History), go to the movies, and read lots of new historical fiction.

How do you get your daily dose of politics?