Marilyn Monroe Reading - Julian de Medeiros
Marilyn Monroe reading James Joyce
One of the under appreciated aspects of Marilyn Monroe is that she was an avid reader. Over the course of her career, more than 100 pictures were taken that feature her reading a book, often candidly in/between shoots. She owned a personal library of more than 400 books and in her letters expressed an interest in the poetry of Yeats and the writing of Thomas Mann.
In the picture above Marilyn is photographed reading James Joyce’s Ulysses. Was it staged? According to the photographer, the legendary Eve Arnold, she recorded Marilyn reading as a genuine moment while she took a break.
“I asked her what she was reading when I went to pick her up (I was trying to get an idea of how she spent her time). She said she kept Ulysses in her car and had been reading it for a long time. She said she loved the sound of it and would read it aloud to herself to try to make sense of it. When we stopped at a local playground to photograph she got out the book and started to read while I loaded the film. So, of course, I photographed her.”
The fact that Marilyn Monroe loved to read can be surprising for some people. Indeed, so strong is the prejudice that being beautiful and intelligent are mutually exclusive, that many critics refused to accept that Marilyn wasn’t “faking” an interest in literature to counteract her “dumb blonde” image. Even today such sexism persists. Why do we find it so difficult to accept that people can contain multitudes?
I have to admit that I was surprised to encounter these images. Apparently they’re very rarely reproduced. But they show a completely different side of Marilyn Monroe. And it made me realize how many legendary writers and poets she became acquainted with, including Truman Capote, Saul Bellows, and Norman Rosten.
And she didn’t just enjoy reading. Writing was also a key component of Marilyn’s life. Some of her reflections, notes, and poetry can be read in “Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe”.
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