Few people have ever convinced Elizabeth Taylor to do something she doesn't want to do. She's famously stubborn.

Authors Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger can count themselves among the scant few who have succeeded.

In their new book, "Furious Love," Kashner and Schoenberger deliver an unsparing account of Taylor and Richard Burton -- Hollywood's first power couple.

Booze, scandal, glamour, infidelity. Every triumph and transgression of tabloid faves "Liz and Dick" crinkles these pages with startling intimacy.

Yet Taylor, initially, wanted nothing to do with this book when its authors approached her five years ago.

"For being one of the most famous women in the world, Elizabeth has managed to keep a private life. That surprises many people," Kashner told CTV.ca.

"Elizabeth has wonderful, sane children. Her private life is her own. She has been true to that code until now," says Kashner, a contributor to Vanity Fair, Esquire and GQ.

One fortuitous event compelled Taylor to break that code.

While in New York, Kashner met a drama student from Montreal's McGill University.

The 20-year-old overheard Kashner discussing this book that would never be.

"She came up to me and said, ‘This is so cool. I had no idea that Elizabeth Taylor was married to Tim Burton!'"

Kashner immediately relayed the incident to Taylor.

"It was like finding the key that fit the lock," he says.

"Elizabeth finally realized that Burton's name and genius were disappearing from today's world. She violated her own privacy rules to further his memory."

Burton's love letters to Liz revealed

In one of the biggest coups in publishing history, Kashner and Schoenberger were given the green-light by the 78-year-old actress to publish all but one of Burton's love letters to her.

"Elizabeth keeps that one in a bedside drawer," says Kashner.

"It arrived two days after Burton's death in 1984. It's like a call from the grave. She'd never let it go."

The almost 500-page book is built around the letters, and also includes other archival materials such as Burton's poems. The letters included here offer surprising insights into this larger-than-life love story.

"The thing that really surprised me was the despondency and suicidal despair Burton felt when Elizabeth left him," says Kashner.

Tired of his drinking, Taylor divorced Burton in 1974 (they married in 1964). The pair wed again in 1975 and divorced in 1976.

Known for his heroic presence in films like "The Robe" (1953) and "Alexander the Great" (1956), the real Burton was plagued with insecurities.

"For all his braggadocio Burton hated the way he looked on screen. His self-pity was a problem," says Kashner.

As Burton writes, "I've never found a part as good as playing the husband of Elizabeth Taylor."

Yet he loved Taylor passionately, writing words to her like "My blind eyes are desperately waiting for the sight of you."

"A new era of existence happened to Burton when he met Elizabeth. To me that was very powerful," says Kashner.

History unkind to Burton and Taylor

Burton and Taylor made headlines in 1963 thanks to their scandalous affair on the set of "Cleopatra."

Taylor was married to singer Eddie Fisher, a man she had "stolen," so tabloids reported, from Debbie Reynolds.

Burton had a wife and two daughters.

Even before then, Burton's interest in Taylor was piqued in 1953 when the Welsh stage star spotted her at a Hollywood party.

"She was so extraordinarily beautiful that I nearly laughed out loud," Burton writes. "She was lavish. She was…too bloody much…and she was totally ignoring me."

Once they hooked up in Rome, however, in 1963 Burton and Taylor were on fire.

"These letters reveal two couples," says Kashner.

"There was ‘Liz and Dick,' the couple that hung out with the Rothchilds, Aristotle Onassis and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Then there was ‘Elizabeth and Richard.' They worked together. They blended their families. They tried very hard to make their private lives work," he says.

"People compare the Burton's to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. But Brad and Angie would never be crushed today at an airport by thousands of fans," says Kashner.

"For a while in the early and mid-60s the Burtons were bigger than Beatlemania," he laughs.

"That's why whenever anyone tells Elizabeth about some ‘big' star she'll ask, ‘Have they been condemned by the Vatican for sexual vagrancy, or denounced and vilified on the floor of the House of Representatives?"

As "Furious Love" lovingly points out, there are Hollywood celebs. But there's only one Taylor and Burton.