In his personal diaries Richard Burton is a man quite different from the one we "know" as acclaimed actor, international film star and jet-set celebrity. From these private pages there emerges a different person--a family man, a father, a husband, a man often troubled and always keenly observing. Understood through his own words, day by day and year by year, Burton becomes a fully rounded human being who, with a wealth of talent and a surprising burden of insecurity, confronts the peculiar challenges of a life lived largely in the spotlight. This volume publishes for the first time the surviving diaries of Richard Burton (born Richard Jenkins in 1925), written between 1939 and 1983--throughout his career and the years of his celebrated marriages to Elizabeth Taylor. Entries appear in their original sequence, with annotations to clarify people, places, books, and events mentioned. At times he struggles to come to terms with his unfulfilled potential, at others he crows over achievements and hungers for greater challenges. Always he is articulate, opinionated and fascinating --From publisher description.