She was an elusive star with a magnetic force that sent compasses haywire whenever she got close.” They take nothing away from Marilyn’s mystery but rather make the mystery more material. What the notes reveal is intimacy without showiness, the seismic measuring of a soul.

Biographers and journalists have detailed stories of addictions and psychiatric illnesses, which have all contributed to the legend of Monroe as a tragic victim: a girl born on the wrong side of the tracks, with a childhood in and out of foster homes, and an adulthood of exploitation by the men she craved affection from and who eventually led to her lonely, mysterious death.Īs the editors say, “the collection of documents revealed here is nothing less than a treasure trove… there is nothing dirty or low, no gossip in this book that was not Marilyn’s way. The circumstances of Monroe’s death have always been seen as the dark side of this luminous vision a cautionary tale of excess and addiction, to those who lust for the champagne-fuelled whirl of sex and glamour conjured up by those rumours of the Kennedys, Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio. Just how carefree she really was, however, is a longstanding cultural obsession that today arguably exceeds the interest in her film performances. Unlike her contemporaries Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds and Jane Russell, she has been crystallised as an image of perfection: a concoction of fluffy white blonde hair, sleepy-lidded eyes, and a dazzling smile that appears both seductive and carefree.

One of the reasons why Marilyn Monroe remains such a potent and visible icon of beauty and glamour is because she never grew old in front of the cameras.

Fragments by marilyn monroe