FROM THE PUBLISHER

Each of these 50 profiles is an intimate pairing: Lauren Bacall on her relationship with Humphrey Bogart; A. Alvarez on the beautiful, sad days of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath; Katharine Hepburn on her stormy life with Spencer Tracy.

Lovers also includes contributions from George Burns, Dylan Thomas, Jimmy Carter, and John Gregory Dunne. Every written piece is accompanied by a lush full-page portrait of the couple, by such noted photographers as Cecil Beaton, Neil Leifer, Alan Tannenbaum, Bert Stern, and Annie Leibovitz. Lovers is a book about the fire of true love - the undeniable longing that makes two people the desire of each other's lives. Sometimes it comes in fiery flashes like Burton and Taylor; Rivera and Frida Kahlo; sometimes in the deep, lasting bond of Newman and Woodward; and sometimes in a long, sad trajectory like Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.