Richard Burton Prince of Players
by Michael Munn
Published  Skyhorse Publishing 2008
Pages 260 Price $14.99 paperback

Richard Walter Jenkins Jr., later known as Richard Burton, is one of the 20th century’s most gifted actors. He was born in 1925 in Wales. He died in 1984 at age 58 in Geneva, Switzerland.

For those of us who enjoyed his acting in films like, “The Robe, Hamlet,” “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and “The Sandpiper,” his early death is a tragic loss.

Many critics in England thought he was the next Lawrence Olivier. I liked him better than Olivier. His voice and the command of the English language was eloquent and mesmerizing.

Burton was one of 12 children. His father was a coal miner and heavy drinker who went on benders for weeks at a time. His mother was a barmaid at a pub. Richard was only two when his mother died during childbirth of her 13th child. His sister Cis became a mother figure and with her husband took him into their home. She was a nurturing influence in his life encouraged him to go to school.

In 1937 Burton became the first member of his family to go to secondary school. He went on a Scholarship to the Port Talbot Secondary School. He loved reading English and Welsh Literature. At Talbot he came under the influence of a teacher named Philip Burton who taught him how to use his voice and to love Shakespeare.He also encouraged him to join school plays. In 1943 Philip Burton adopted him as a ward. At that time Richard changed his name from Jenkins  to Burton and became known as Richard Burton.

In 1944 he managed to get a scholarship to Exeter College in Oxford, but left in six months to join the RAF as a navigator during World War II. He was discharged from the RAF in 1947 and moved to London. While touring in a play in England, he was discovered by Emlyn Williams, an old English actor, and director, who asked him to take part in a film titled “The  Last Days of Dolwyn” which started his career in films. He married Sybil Williams in 1949.

John Gielgud selected him for the hero in “The Lady’s Not For Burning,” a play that got rave reviews in England. Burton continued in a variety of Shakespeare plays and won major awards. He broke into America with a film called “My Cousin Rachel,” in 1952, co- starring with Olivia de Haviland.

He arrived in Hollywood when the studio system was still struggling. The rise of television was drawing away an audience. But he managed to get a role in the film “The Robe.” Darrell Zanuck offered Burton a seven year contract but Burton had his heart set on playing Hamlet at the Old Vic in London. However, they did make a compromise and he did both.

At the time there was great snobbery in the acting world between being a theater person or just a film star. Being a theater person was considered a higher form of creativity. Burton wanted to act in both but his heart remained in the theater.

He did do films like “The Prince of Players,” (1955) “All the King’s Men,” (1949) “Alexander the Great,” and “The Rains of Ranchipur” (1955.) The film world kidnapped him for awhile and he succumbed to its charms. Yet by 1960, Burton had triumphed on the New York stage  in “Camelot,” directed by Moss Hart and captured America’s heart.

However, Burton met his Waterloo when he agreed to do “Cleopatra,” in 1961 with Elizabeth Taylor. There were so many obstacles that the film didn’t get completed until 1963. But he fell in love with Elizabeth and was so mesmerized by her beauty that he kept forgetting his lines. How could that happen to an actor who could quote Shakespeare in his sleep? Burton had four major passions: 1.) Drinking, 2.) The theater, 3.) Women, 4.) Elizabeth Taylor. He succumbed to all four with Elizabeth Taylor. They loved each other but could not live with each other. They got married twice to each other and divorced twice from each other.

What eventually took Burton at 58 was bad health. He had consumed so much liquor over the years that it ruined his liver. He had kidney disease and severe crippling arthritis. Yet, he had overcome alcoholism. He died of a brain hemorrhage on Aug. 5, 1984.  However, he still lives on in his wonderful films which reflect his magical performances on the screen for many other generations to enjoy.

***
United
by Corey Booker
Published by Ballentine Books 2017
Pages 223 Price $17 paperback

Corey Booker is a United States Senator from New Jersey.  He was born in Washington D.C. His parents moved to New Jersey where he was brought up. Booker became a football star in high school and got a football scholarship to Stanford University where he earned both a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree. While at Stanford he world with disadvantaged youth in Menlo Park. He next attended Oxford College on a Rhodes Scholarship before earning a law degree at Yale University.

He worked with grass roots organizations in Newark before becoming the Mayor of Newark. When Booker went into office as Mayor of Newark in 2006, Newark was in a $180,000 crisis. When he left office in 2013 the Newark budget was balanced. He left an outstanding record.

The book does have some surprises in it. One surprise occurs at the opening of the book. Booker is critical of a hero figure, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard professor of African American Studies, author and editor of dozens of books. Booker states, ”I hate Henry Louis Gates Jr.” but several paragraphs later he says, ”I love him anyway.” For the general reader those remarks were confusing.

Apparently Gates Jr. had asked Booker to be on a “Finding Your Roots” TV program. In an introduction, Gates jr. jolted open Booker’s eyes which changed his attitude in life. It was temporarily embarrassing to Booker because it revealed significant unknown facts which Booker was unaware of. However, Booker states in a later passage, ”Henry Louis Gates Jr. gave me a measure of insight into my history.”

Two American ethics became clear in Booker’s mind which he states in the book. “Privileges and opportunities say nothing of character  and honor.” Booker further states in the book, “We are ultimately responsible for our actions. We are defined by what we do. What we do or do not do leaves a lasting imprint beyond what we can imagine.”

After Booker’s success as Mayor of Newark, he became interested in national politics. He decided to run in the special election to fill the term of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg and  won. He became New Jersey’s first African American senator.

As junior senator from New Jersey he has supported  a bill in congress called the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill helping prisoners get rehabilitated into society.

Another bill he has supported includes Medicare for all. He supports a two state solution for Israel and has supported affirmative action at universities in the United States, as well as supports Washington D.C. in becoming a state.

Booker is a liberal Democrat who ends his book with the following quote,” If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”

This book reveals a person running for president who wants to unite America while honoring diversity. He merits serious thought, consideration, and respect. There are so many people running for president this year that it is hard to remember them all.  However, Booker’s book is memorable.

— Pat Davidson Reef is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston. She received her Masters Degree at the University of Southern Maine.She taught English and Art History at Catherine McAuley High for many years. She now teaches at the University of Southern Maine in Portland in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Classic Films. She recently wrote a children’s book,”Dahlov Ipcar Artist,” and is now writing another children’s book “Bernard Langlais Revisited.”