There is an ineresting book display at my library right now. 'Are you as well read as Marilyn Monroe?' To be honest I don't really know that much about Marilyn Monroe, but she is such an iconic figure that it's hard not to be aware of some of her life story. I know odd details, but I didn't know that Monroe had a large personal library, which was auctioned off in 1999. Last fall her journals and personal writings were published in a book called Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters, which was edited by Bernard Comment. It throws light on a different side of Monroe--she wasn't just a pretty face, but was an avid reader as well. I think any book lover can appreciate the need to escape from life's daily problems and turmoils into the pages of a good book. Monroe had a particularly tumultuous life, so it's touching to discover that she was fond of being photographed reading and held many authors in the highest esteem.
The display in my library is made up of titles that Marilyn Monroe had in her collection. The display was inspired by this blog post. You can see more photos of Marilyn reading there as well. The complete list of the books in her library is also included. For a taste I've listed the first hundred or so of the over four hundred that were auctioned off.
1. Let's Make Love by Matthew Andrews (novelization of the movie)
2. How To Travel Incognito by Ludwig Bemelmans
3. To The One I Love Best by Ludwig Bemelmans
4. Thurber Country by James Thurber
5. The Fall by Albert Camus
6. Marilyn Monroe by George Carpozi
7. Camille by Alexander Dumas
8. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
9. The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt-Farmer
10. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
11. From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
12. The Art Of Loving by Erich Fromm
13. The Prophet by Kahlil Gilbran
14. Ulysses by James Joyce
15. Stoned Like A Statue: A Complete Survey Of Drinking Cliches, Primitive, Classical & Modern by Howard Kandel & Don Safran, with an intro by Dean Martin
16. The Last Temptation Of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
17. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
18. Selected Poems by DH Lawrence
19. and 20. Sons And Lovers by DH Lawrence (2 editions)
21. The Portable DH Lawrence
22. Etruscan Places (DH Lawrence?)
23. DH Lawrence: A Basic Study Of His Ideas by Mary Freeman
24. The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
25. The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
26. Death In Venice & Seven Other Stories by Thomas Mann
27. Last Essays by Thomas Mann
28. The Thomas Mann Reader
29. Hawaii by James Michener
30. Red Roses For Me by Sean O'Casey
31. I Knock At The Door by Sean O'Casey
32. Selected Plays by Sean O'Casey
33. The Green Crow by Sean O'Casey
34. Golden Boy by Clifford Odets
35. Clash By Night by Clifford Odets
36. The Country Girl by Clifford Odets
37. 6 Plays Of Clifford Odets
38. The Cat With 2 Faces by Gordon Young
39. Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill
40. Part Of A Long Story: Eugene O'Neill As A Young Man In Love by Agnes Boulton
41. The Little Engine That Could by Piper Watty (with childish pencil scrawls at end, possibly MM's)
42. The New Joy Of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer & Marion Rombauer-Becker (with some cut recipes, page markers, a typed diet sheet and manuscript shopping list, apparently in MM's hand, laid in)
43. Selected Plays Of George Bernard Shaw
44. Ellen Terry And Bernard Shaw - A Correspondence
45. Bernard Shaw & Mrs Patrick Campbell - Their Correspondence
46. The Short Reigh Of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck
47. Once There Was A War by John Steinbeck
48. Set This House On Fire by William Styron
49. Lie Down In Darkness (William Styron?)
50. The Roman Spring Of Mrs Stone by Tennessee Williams
51. Camino Real by Tennessee Williams
52. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (with notes by MM)
53. The Flower In Drama And Glamour by Stark Young (inscribed to MM by Lee Strasberg, Christmas 1955)
American Literature
54. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
55. The Story Of A Novel by Thomas Wolfe
56. Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
57. A Stone, A Leaf, A Door (Thomas Wolfe?)
58. Thomas Wolfe's Letters To His Mother, ed. John Skally Terry
59. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
60. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
61. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
62. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
63. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
64. The American Claimant & Other Stories & Sketches by Mark Twain
65. In Defense of Harriet Shelley & Other Essays (Mark Twain?)
66. The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
67. Roughing It (Mark Twain?)
68. The Magic Christian by Terry Southern
69. A Death In The Family by James Agee
70. The War Lover by John Hersey
71. Don't Call Me By My Right Name & Other Stories by James Purdy
72. Malcolm by James Purdy
Anthologies
73. The Portable Irish Reader (pub. Viking)
74. The Portable Poe - Edgar Allen Poe
75. The Portable Walt Whitman
76. This Week's Short Stories (New York, 1953)
77. Bedside Book Of Famous Short Stories
78. Short Novels Of Colette
79. Short Story Masterpieces (New York, 1960)
80. The Passionate Playgoer by George Oppenheimer
81. Fancies And Goodnights by John Collier
82. Evergreen Review, Vol 2, No. 6
83. The Medal & Other Stories by Luigi Pirandello
Art
84. Max Weber (art book - inscribed to MM by 'Sam' - Shaw?)
85. Renoir by Albert Skira
86. Max by Giovannetti Pericle
87. The Family Of Man by Carl Sandburg
88.-90. Horizon, A Magazine Of The Arts (Nov 1959, Jan 1960, Mar 1960.)
91. Jean Dubuffet by Daniel Cordier
Biography
92. The Summing Up by W. Somerset Maugham
93. Close To Colette by Maurice Goudeket
94. This Demi-Paradise by Margaret Halsey
95. God Protect Me From My Friends by Gavin Maxwell
96. Minister Of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story by Quentin Reynolds, Ephraim Katz and Zwy Aldouby
97. Dance To The Piper by Agnes DeMille
98. Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It by Mae West
99. Act One by Moss Hart
Christian Science
100. Science And Health With Key To The Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
101. Poems, Including Christ And Christmas by Mary Baker Eddy
Classical Works
102. 2 Plays: Peace And Lysistrata by Aristophanes
103. Of The Nature Of Things by Lucretius
104. The Philosophy Of Plato
105. Mythology by Edith Hamilton
106. Theory Of Poetry And Fine Art by Aristotle
107. Metaphysics by Aristotle
108.-111. Plutarch's Lives, Vols 3-6 only (of 6) by William and John Langhorne
I wonder if she read them all? As someone who also collects books I can only say there are many unread books in my own collection (which I am happily reading my way through...). I certainly admire her taste.