Norma Jean The Life of Marilyn Monroe Author:Fred Lawrence Guiles Norma Jean will be recognized instantly as the most complete and comprehensive biography of Marilyn Monroe. The author studies in depth the emergence of one of America's greatest film goddesses and her decade of notoriety. He probes in detail the complex elements of her identity, as a person and as a star, and traces her final withdrawal fro... more »m public exposure during the last months of her life. Norma Jean is a disturbing document - concluding with the full story of what led to her death in 1962, a death that perhaps had a more immediate impact on more millions of people than any excepting that of President Kennedy.
Most of the material for this unique biography has come from lengthy and detailed interviews over a period of five years with those closest to Marilyn Monroe - among them Pat Newcomb, her confidante and press agent; Arthur Miller and James Dougherty, two of her husbands; Lee Strasberg, one of her acting coaches; John Huston, Billy Wilder, Joshua Logan, and Otto Preminger, four of her most important directors. There has been no attempt to repeat the legends and myths; indeed, deeper research revealed these to be largely apocryphal. Here for the first time, is an accurate, almost documentary account of Marilyn Monroe's life.« less