Listen to Professor Williams talking about the donation of the papers by the actor's widow Sally Burton, in an archive clip on the BBC Wales Arts website.
Photograph of Richard Burton's diary from 1940, courtesy of Swansea University.
Speaking ahead of the lecture Williams said: "Richard Burton was, in many ways, a frustrated scholar. A man of considerable intelligence, he had great respect for scholarship and literature, and often expressed a desire to make his mark in these fields rather than in the world of theatre and film acting.
"This dimension to his character emerges very powerfully in the private writing that he undertakes in his diaries."
Friday's lecture also marks the completion of the Richard Burton Archives - a £1.2 million refurbishment that will preserve not only the treasured Richard Burton Collection, but also the South Wales Coalfield Collection, the Raymond Williams papers and other collections.
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