Elizabeth Taylor Love Letter to William Pawley
Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times, and all her love were passionate. She wasn’t afraid to express her love, as confirmed by her love letters written to William Pawley, her fiance.
When she was only 17 and stunningly beautiful, she met a young man on a Florida beach, where she stayed with her parents. She flew home with them and began writing the letters on the plane, addressing the 28-year-old Pauley as My Darling Baby. By that time, Elizabeth Taylor was already a Hollywood star, but as her love letters from 1949 show, she was also an innocent teenager in love.
Taylor didn’t just profess what she described as her perfect, complete and mature love for Pawley. The starlet also described studio life, including the filming of A Place in the Sun. But mostly, she wrote about Pawley, the 22-year-old son of a former ambassador to Brazil, reassuring him over and over that her love is true.
My heart aches and makes me want to cry when I think of you, and how much I want to be with and to look into your beautiful blue eyes, and kiss your sweet lips and have your strong arms hold me, oh so tight, and close to you … I want us to be ‘lovers’ always … even after we’ve been married seventy-five years and have at least a dozen great-great-grandchildren, she wrote on March 28.
Taylor and Pawley were engaged in May, when she told Pawley that she was ready to say goodbye to her career and everything connected with it, For I won’t be giving anything up — but I will be gaining the greatest gift that God bestows on man — love, marriage, a family — and you my Darling.
Elizabeth Taylor Love Letter to William Pawley
In August, her letters show there was trouble ahead: I felt with all my heart that this thing could never work out – there are so many damn (many) things against us, she wrote. By September, however, Taylor was writing about returning her engagement ring at Pawley’s request. I know with all my heart and soul that this is not the end for us — it couldn’t be — we love each other too much, she wrote.
The letters start in March 1949, and the last one was written in October, when the pressures of stardom apparently put an end to the relationship. Not long after Taylor broke up with Pawley, she met Conrad Hilton, the first of her eight husbands.
Taylor died on Wednesday, and Bobby Livingston, RR’s vice president of sales and marketing, said he’s thrilled to have her letters as part of their Vintage Hollywood auction. He also said, normally a a collection of 66 letters from such a big star would sell for $25,000-$30,000, but because of Taylor’s recent death, the sky’s the limit. The estimated worth of the letters is approximately $100,000.
The letters range from four to 10 pages and were written with a fountain pen on good-quality stationery, some light pink and some light blue. Some have her name in printed letterhead on top. The online auction, set for May 19-26, will also feature letters Taylor’s mother wrote to Pawley after the engagement ended, including one in which she wrote, You have a nervous condition and a problem with jealousy, as such you and Elizabeth can never be together.
But when we write about Elizabeth’s letters, we must mention love letter that Richard Burton wrote to her shortly before his death. Their romance is a legend in Hollywood, were married twice but their tempestuous nature ensured that they could never stay together but as Taylor was to confess later Burt on was the love of her life. The actress kept the letter safely stored next to her bed for the past 27 years but it went with her when she was laid to rest at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles.
Liz Taylor was truly special. Her loves were big, turbulent and passionate. She knew how to conquer the hearts not just of her lovers, but most of us. [RR Auction]
Elizabeth Taylor Love Letter to William Pawley
