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Marilyn |  | Author: Gloria Steinem
Creator: George Barris
Publisher: MJF Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.98
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Seller: the_book_relocator
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 732920
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 182
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 11.3 x 9.8 x 0.8
ISBN: 1567311253
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43028092
EAN: 9781567311259
ASIN: 1567311253
Publication Date: July 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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 that has never died. 16 pages of full-color photos.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
Ahead of its Time December 30, 2009
Loves the View (Hawaii)
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.
 Unlikely... but very good August 30, 2005
summer grace (midwest)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
One would not think that a book on Marilyn Monroe by Gloria Steinem could be any good. However, this book is that and more. A picture book published in 1986, with photogrphS by George Baris, both the text and the pictures are quite good. That is a rare combination. The pictures were taken in summer, 1962 by George Barris and continue all through the book. These pictures were never shown in close to their entirety before, so that was the main reason for the existence of this book. The photographs, especially the beach ones, are some of the best ever taken of Marilyn, looking relaxed and very girlish in the last summer of her life. She does not look like she had any problems at all, much less the ones she had. The photographs did need a showcase, and this book is a more than adequate one.
The text is surpisingly good for something that was written expressly for a photo book. Usually, in those cases, the text is neither good nore relevant. Mariyln Monroe and Gloria Steinem are an unlikely combination, but that does not mean that it diod not work. It did-fabulously. Gloria Steinem does a insightful job oif writing about Marilyn's life, and who she was. Gloria Steinem, although the queen of feminists, is not overbearing here. Marilyn Monroe was no feminist, but Gloria Steinem recognizes that, and interprets Marilyn Monroe from a feminist viewpoint without going overboard. She could so easily have overdone things as Mailer did in his book. This is Marilyn in a different light, but one that suits her. The comments are enjoyable to someone who is not remotely intetested in anything feminist. This is a good book, not just a curiosity that raises eyebrows.
THIS is the Marilyn I love July 26, 2003
Elizabeth Roberts-Zibbel (bowling green ohio)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
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 September 20, 2002
christine (nyc , usa)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
Marilyn - (Abridged) March 16, 2001
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a beautiful photo expose' of Marilyn just six short weeks of her tragic and untimely death. As the first reader/reviewer has stated, this book was written with references to the stars' sexual abuse and family history, which lead to her emotional problems dating from adolescence. Gloria Steinem wrote this work without any 'bias' to this movie legend. I found her writing to be sensitive and understanding throughout. George Barris' photographs are as beautiful and will forever be timeless images of this very remarkable screen star of the 20th century throughout the next millenium. This book should be considered a "must have" for the Monroe fan and collector.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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