Marilyn

by Gloria Steinem and Barri Steinem

Book Overview

In this sensitive, provocative portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Gloria Steinem reveals the woman behind the myth--the child Norma Jean--and the forces in America that shaped her into the fantasy and icon... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805000607
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 2.41 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I couldn't even read it, it was covered in mold

The book I received as mold on it

Ahead of its Time

It's fitting that Gloria Steinem, who helped the world see women as the people they really are, should tackle the subject of Marilyn Monroe. Monroe was, and in some ways still is, the ultimate target for projected feelings about women. This book was published at about the time as the more popular but now discredited biography by Norman Mailer. Mailer's work can serve as Exhibit A about the attitudes and beliefs that both made and broke Marilyn. I came to this book after reading Randy Taraborelli's The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe where it is cited. Taraborelli builds on not just this book, but the feminist thinking Steinem pioneered which is now so mainstream that it would hardly be labeled "feminist". Steinem writes that Marilyn resents her role in her husband, Arthur Miller's "The Misfits" where she saves horses by having an female cliched hysterical fit. Both Steinem and Taraborelli discuss the role Miller tailored for her in "After the Fall", with Taraborelli clearly more strident in his depiction of stereotypes Miller was putting on her. I had expected more from Steinem on Marilyn's female support system which probably began from a series of female care givers. As an adult, Marilyn bonded with her half sister, Pat Lawford, two female drama coaches and a female publicist and other female professionals. Her father's absence and his denial of her are stressed which has the effect of minimizing the impact of Marilyn's mother's emotional instability on her emotional security as a child. Steinem covers one area Taraborelli doesn't touch, and that is birth control, a subject taboo at the time, and somewhat so today. Very few biographies of women go near this fundamental issue in a young woman's life. Steinem poses that there were a number of abortions and describes Marilyn's longing for children. In the 20+ years since this book, old myths have been replaced by new ones. Interesting things emerge, such as how Norma Jeane got her name and how short a time the Kennedy acquaintance was. We know more about Marilyn's half sister My Sister Marilyn: A Memoir of Marilyn Monroe, and with feminism, there is a more realistic understanding of Marilyn's first husband and marriage than can be envisioned from 1950's stereotypes. The photos show a variety of faces such that you have to look at some twice to assure they are the same women. All are timelessly beautiful and her age of 36 is hard to determine. From Taraborelli you learn Marilyn's strategy in having them done, which shows her will, her drive and her incredible ability to rise to an occasion. While I would have liked more analysis from Steinem, for a coffee table book, it doesn't get much better than this.

For fans worldwide!

WOW! These glorious photos alone are worth the price of this book! "16 pages of rare and intimate color photographs." In these photos, Marilyn is playful, pensive, professional ... God the things that fantastic lady must have gone through! Most seem to be at a nearby beach and at someone's home, possibly hers. "Color photographs were shot with Ektachrome (Kodak) daylight color film, using Nikon's 35mm and Rolleiflex's 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 cameras with a 1.4 lens." "All were taken in June and July of 1962." They live for the ages now.

THIS is the Marilyn I love

Having recently read the axe-grinding Marilyn Monroe "biography" by Ted Jordan, finding this gem by Gloria Steinem (with beautiful photograhps by George Barris) was such a relief. Whether kind or unkind, most Marilyn biographers are men; it makes sense that a woman (and a feminist) would have a much different understanding of her. Steinem pays much attention to the remaining Norma Jeane personality in the grown Marilyn, a little girl who was abandoned, abused, shuffled between the orphanage and foster homes, and married off at 16. This, Steinem writes, explains much of Marilyn's troublesome behavior: she still had the insecurities of Norma Jeane, but tried to get the love she needed by being the sex symbol Marilyn.This larger sized paperback is split into chapters, for example: "Norma Jeane," about her childhood and background, and "Work and Money, Sex and Politics" about Marilyn's battles with the Studio, her marriages, and her affairs with powerful men. Each chapter is a complete essay unto itself. And the accompanying photographs, most taken by George Barris the month before her death, show a natural, cavorting, and thoughtful Marilyn at 36 years old.I strongly recommend this book to anyone curious about the REAL Marilyn Monroe. In truth, she had many realities, but I think that Gloria Steinem captures the most important one.

i loved the pictures of marilyn

i loved this book "marilyn " because of the most beautiful pictures of marilyn, these pictures were the last pictures ever taken of marilyn and they show the real true beautiful person and that is norma jeane and the glamor beautiful star marilyn monroe. these pictures show two people one the shy , beautiful, loveable, true, norma jeane and the funny , glamor, beautiful, free, loving marilyn monroe, but it really shows the true norma jeane in these pictures. this book is for the marilyn fans like me, but i am more than a fan of marilyn's , marilyn is my idol my icon and she is real . i reccomened this book to whoever loves marilyn. this is a collectible. what i did not like about this book is the author gloria she says marilyn had killed herself, which i DO NOT BELIEVE , which i beleive is not true, but i ignored that , but the pictures are amazing.

Insightful & reverent

Gloria Steinem explores Marilyn's life through an empathic and feminist perspective in one of my favorite Monroe biographies. Ms. Steinem respectfully addresses the Marilyn's life within the context of her era and retrospectively. She also addresses the impact of Marilyn's childhood sexual abuse and family history on her functioning. Marilyn would likely be proud of this intelligent, compassionate, historical and cultural treatment. I place this book in league with biographies by Carl Rollyson, Graham McCann and Fred Lawrence Guiles. Of course, the timeless photographic images by George Barris accompanying the brilliant text are refreshing, delightful and touching. Steinem truly strives to understand Marilyn, celebrate her strengths and re-evaluate her for our times. Marilyn seems "to speak" through Steinem's insights and in Barris' photographs.