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Marilyn Monroe
 
 

Marilyn Monroe (Hardcover)

by Barbara Leaming (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Pub (Nov 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0517702606
  • ISBN-13: 978-0517702604
  • Product Dimensions: 24.8 x 16.5 x 4.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

This extraordinarily thoughtful book by Barbara Leaming, a literary star among film-star biographers, offers the last thing you'd expect in a book on Marilyn Monroe: new information from verifiable sources. Certainly, much of the tragedy is familiar: an abused, confused girl from an orphanage with a mother in a madhouse rises from sexual party favour for homely showbiz men to the movie superstar who pushes them around, until she crashes, a victim of self-loathing and drug addiction.

The thing about a tragedy is that its heroine isn't a victim--she's responsible for her fate. Leaming does scholarly spadework, digging up hard facts from sources like UCLA's 20th Century Fox collection and the diary-like first drafts of Arthur Miller's semi- autobiographical work, and she makes sense of Monroe's motives. She even apparently solves Monroe's suicide with clues from the star's psychiatrist's letters in the Anna Freud collection. Her last overdose may have happened just because her psychiatrist went to dinner with his wife and she felt abandoned.

But until pills killed her, Monroe wasn't a candle in the wind. She burned with ambition and knew how to craft a persona and play power games--with moguls and with the McCarthyites hounding her husband Miller. Leaming plausibly analyses the Miller- Monroe-Elia Kazan love/hate triangle, sizes up the Kennedy connection, condemns her acting coach Lee Strasberg as "chillingly mercenary," and deftly shows just how her life entangled her art, film by film. This book is a work of sharp intellect and emotional insight unclouded by lust or star worship. --Tim Appelo --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Product Description

This biography includes primary material which makes sense of the Kennedy saga as an integral part of Marilyn's life. Previous biographies have relied on secondary sources and gossip. Leaming, by contrast, is writing a serious biography revealing the gripping story that is the make up of Monroe. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A book as detailed and fascinating as the woman herself., 15 Mar 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Marilyn Monroe (Paperback)
The author has obviously done a great deal of research into her subject and it shows. She details Marilyn Monroe's childhood, family, relationships, friendships, marriages, career and problems with such detail you almost feel you knew her.
Read this if you are a Marilyn enthusiast or have only just become interested in learning about this remarkable woman. You may also find it a fascinating book if you are interested in films and particularly those of the 1950s.
This book provides a very satisfying read and other Marilyn biographies pale in comparison. However, although this book does not take the official cause of death at face value, mentioning the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death, it says nothing of the murder theories.
If you are interested in learning all the theories and judging the truth for yourself I suggest reading this book to learn the official version of matters and then another such as 'The Assassination of Marilyn Monroe' or 'Last Take' which give much more detail about her relationships with the Kennedys and the various alternative theories.
This book gives Marilyn Monroe the biography she deserves, exploding the myths about her supposed limited intelligence and really making her come alive.
Readers cannot help but be touched on some personal level by this book and the remarkable lady behind the name.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book, 4 April 2009
By Jonathan Carr "joncarr" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is my personal favourite book about Marilyn Monroe. Partly because it is based so much on real documentation from 20th Century Fox, and partly because of Barbara Leaming's storytelling powers. It is genius, really, to open the book with a scene when Marilyn, in her early twenties, meets Arthur Miller for the first time. Here we see her in a distressed state, with all her ambitions for fame, success and love unfulfilled and everything before her. The paradox of her life is that she got all of it, and then died so young.

Leaming has used the vast Twentieth Century Fox Collection at UCLA as her primary source for the book. As she says in her notes on sources, 'the drama of Marilyn's perpetual conflicts with Darryl Zanuck and other studio executives explodes in these utterly fascinating pages'.

You can't help but feel for Marilyn, a troubled and vulnerable woman who nevertheless pushed hard to get her own way and explored psychotherapy and pursued acting seriously in an effort to improve her life and understand herself. I think Barbara Leaming really captures her in a fresh and compelling way.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A Very Detached Review of our Heroine, 1 Sep 2003
By A. Childs "fa11enmad0nna" (Worthing, Sussex) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Marilyn Monroe (Paperback)
Being an avid fan of the beloved Marilyn for many years now I have read all the books under the sun about her life, loves, career,etc. Although obviously extensively researched, this book seems to do nothing more than portray Marilyn as a hard-headed business woman who thought of no one but herself.
Unfortunately,this does not match the many biographies I have read over the years! I was left disappointed by the way her death was skimmed over. Having read Donald Wolfe's 'The Assasination of Marilyn Monroe' I expected full, factual evidence of why the author believes in the 'suicide theory'. Sadly none forthecoming! Interesting book but not for Mazzie lovers, it will make you angry!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Marilyn Monroe
Wow. I had no idea that Marilyn had such an eventful life. :) Very interesting, recomended for anyone who loves her, or just wants to get to know her better, like i did.
Published 6 months ago by Lewis Alexander Walker

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good biography of the world's favourite blonde bombshell
This book is an amazing read, as it charts Marilyn's life very clearly with fascinating details. The more you read, the more you can't put it down, as you find out things about... Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2007 by candy perfume girl

5.0 out of 5 stars Marilyn Monroe Barbara Leaming
What an excellent book. If you sit down for five minutes you will soon become absorbed into the world of marilyn monroe and all that surrounded her. Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2003 by sophie

4.0 out of 5 stars An absorbing insight into the life of Marilyn Monroe
I have read various biographies on the life of Marilyn Monroe. This book, more than any other I have read, deals with the despair and sadness in Marilyn's life. Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2000

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