Marilyn Monroe: A Biography Paperback – February 29, 2000

This was a different type of Marilyn book. It shows you all the in-behind-scenes that was going on regarding Marilyn's fights with Fox and her accomplishment by forming Marilyn Monroe Productions. It also revealed more about Joe Dimagggio and Arthur Miller. We all knew that Marilyn had mental and drug problems, but this book shows how really bad she got. I never knew it was that bad. I have never read anything like that in any other book about her. It is so sad what happened to such an intelligent, vulnerable, tragic, and gorgeous person that she was.

Such a beautiful woman. Great details about her life.

Really enjoyed the book. I knew very little about Monroe's life before starting the biography. Very much a page turner and a balanced, fair biography. Definitely would recommend to others.

This is a book that not all readers will enjoy, as I believe it has too many unnecessary details about Marilyn's life, especially her complex and never ending fight with her studio and the studio executives. After awhile, the multiple studio names blur, and one wants to move the narrative along to the personal side of Marilyn. After all, I think the reader wants to get to know the "real" Marilyn, not the artificially created Marilyn that starred in movies. She was not at all like her movie persona. That said, there is still quite a bit about the personal side of Marilyn. These portions are what makes the book interesting, especially her marriages to Joe Dimaggio and Arthur Miller. What came as a complete surprise to me is how Marilyn "used" her two husbands to either further or stabilize her career. While of course she was used herself by any and all who surrounded her, she used people as well.The author makes it crystal clear that Marilyn Monroe was an extremely needy and unstable person. The book gives her the title of "borderline personality disorder". This describes an extremely emotionally needy person who totally consumes those she is associated with. Marilyn's mother spent a great deal of her life in a mental institution, and the author states that this was a great fear of Marilyn's as well, not only hiding the facts about her mother, but wondering if she would have a similar fate.I gave it three stars because of all the distracting and befuddling details of her contracts and legal issues with her studio and the various studio executives who made her life difficult, and no doubt contributed to her stress and mental illness.Instead of the studio details, I would have liked more details on Marilyn herself. Who were her girl friends? Did she have any close friends who cared for her (besides Joe DiMaggio)? Did she have any real close relationships? I also would have liked to learn more about her childhood and the events that shaped her into the woman she became. The book does not mention many of the more unseemly events of Marilyn's life, such as her ubiquitous affairs, her abortions, or the details about her affairs with the Kennedys (these are mentioned, but few details are given). Finally, the events surrounding her death are not given complete explanation. Of course the perceptive reader already knows there is a great deal of controversy over Marilyn's death, some believing she was murdered by people in high places to make sure she would never spill the details of her affairs with them.Marilyn Monroe was a self-destructive person who sowed the seeds of her own destruction through her excessive drinking, drug addictions, and complete lack of stability in her life. She careened through life like a sports car going down a icy mountain road. She crashed and burned several times, but was able to recover (at least partially). But with each crash, she left a part of her behind and became even more reckless and irresponsible. While she always dreamed of being a movie star, and being taken seriously as an actress, once she became a movie star, she found it was an empty life for she had no one to share it with.Marilyn's life is one of continual tragedy, and this is a rather depressing account of her life. That she died at the age of 36, at the height of her beauty, and after a string of mostly successful movies belies the fact that she was a deeply disturbed woman who never came to terms with herself. She adored being adored, but in fact never liked herself. In fact, she despised herself, and the contrast between the superstar Marilyn and the needy, clingy, never happy, never satisfied Marilyn, is as night and day. There were two Marilyn Monroes - the fantasy Marilyn she and the studios created, and the insecure, emotionally damaged Marilyn, who in the end could not cope with either.kone

I adored and still do adore Marilyn! She reminded me of a lost child who never quite fit in no matter whose company she was in. Even though she was older than I was, she has held me in her struggle for a long time. I believe if only one of those people who surrounded her, really knew the real person she was, she might of had a different opinion of herself. Anyone over the age of twenty would enjoy this book. I have read almost everything printed about Marilyn but I believe this is one of the truest accounts of her life. SKLund

I learned that Marilyn Monroe's life and motivations were much more complex than I ever realized. Through the story of her life, the reader also relives the story of Hollywood, New York, and DC in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly the devastating effect of McCarthyism on writers at that time.

In no way does this book deserve only 1-2 stars. I found this biography to be utterly engrossing from start to finish. Extremely factual and well researched. This is a fascinating and sympathetic portrait of Marilyn with deep insights especially of her marriages and career, and her time in New York at the Actors Studio. I can't praise this book enough but I believe it is over-priced on Kindle. I bought it when it was on sale and I would not have bought it for $12+. I really won't pay that for any e-book. Hope you can find it when the price goes down as it's a great read.

I felt very sorry for Ms Monroe and how she was treated.I could hear the voice I used to hear when I saw hersome of her movies as a child, but did not realize howmuch the people around her manipulated her.

The book is in fair condition. The binding is loosened but other than that everything looks great. No pages are torn and no marks found.

MM my daughter is crazy about her her room is a shrine to this lady and the book with others takes pride of place in her room pics are gorgeous

Marilyn has become such an iconic figure of the 20th century that it's easy to forget how short her glory years were. A brief period in the mid 50s saw her achieve great success as 'The Girl', a fun-loving, sexy, dumb blond. Before that, she was a Hollywood starlet, exploited by men; after it, she was struck down by drink and drugs and could barely stagger onto the set. Ironically, Marilyn hated 'The Girl' and longed to be taken seriously as an actress, selling her soul to the self-regarding 'gurus' of 'The Method'. Marrying Arthur Miller seemed to offer her the credibility she longed for, but Miller wasn't strong enough to love the real woman. Joe di Maggio was the only man who truly loved her and he, perhaps with more insight than anyone else possessed, wanted her to give up acting.Leaming tells a linear, well-researched tale of a woman who was abused as a child, feared succumbing to the mental illness that dogged her mother and died at the age of 36: suicide or accident, it hardly matters. Leaming dismisses the Kennedy myth as the nothing that it was: a few meetings. Bobby was her friend, Jack nothing.Sad, absorbing, a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about the myth that was Marilyn.

I can not write a review for the book as I bought it for someone else. I gave the 5 stars for value and service. Will shop again soon

I never knew an awful lot about Marilyn Monroe. I knew she was an iconic actress and that she had been married to Arthur Miller and Joe DiMaggio. I knew that it had been rumoured that she had had an affair with JFK but all this stuff is the generic facts that most people know. Once I had read Barbara Leaming’s book I knew so much more.What I really loved about this book was that Leaming didn’t glorify Monroe. She discussed matters of Monroe’s life in an in-depth but sensitive way. She had a knack of showing Monroe, warts and all, without making your perceptions of Monroe too altered yet giving you an extra dimension to consider.It isn’t just the story of Marilyn Monroe. It is the story of film making and Monroe as one of the first cluster of women who tried to break through the glass ceiling of an industry long considered a boys club.Marilyn Monroe is a fascinating read.Marilyn Monroe by Barbara Leaming is available now.