Marilyn had approximately 430 books in her library, whether she read them all or not is unknown, but we do know she had them in her possession. Her books included classics such as "Ulysses" by James Joyce, poetry, books correlating to psychology, cooking, gardening, religion, humor, politics, among a variety of other subjects. Overall, despite the misconception that Marilyn was a 'dumb blonde', she was very intelligent and had a wide range and large amount of books, which is proven by her wide variety and large amount of books. Here you will find about all of the books Marilyn had in her collection!
*This is just roughly half of Marilyn's book collection, the rest will be added in the following weeks!
- "Let's Make Love" by Mathew Andrews - "How to Travel Incognito" by Ludwig Bemelmans
- "To the One I Love Best" by Ludwig Bemelmans
- "Thurber Country" by James Thurber
- "The Fall" by Albert Camus
- "Camille" by Alexander Dumas
- "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
- "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" by Fannie Merritt-Farmer
- "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald - "From Russia With Love" by Ian Fleming
- "The Art of Loving" by Erich Fromm
- "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gilbran
- "Ulysses" by James Joyce
- "Stoned Like A Statue: A Complete Survey of Drinking Cliches, Primitive Classical & Modern" by Howard Kandel and Don Safran, with an introduction by Dean Martin
- "The Last Temptation of Christ" by Nikos Kazantzakis
- "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
- "Selected Poems" by D.H. Lawrence
- "Sons and Lovers" by D.H. Lawrence (2 editions of the book)
- "The Portable" by D.H. Lawrence
- "Marilyn Monroe: Her Own Story" by George Carpozi
- "Sketches of Etruscan Places and Other Italian Essays" by D.H. Lawrence
- "D.H. Lawrence: A Basic Study of His Ideas" by Mary Freeman
- "The Assistant" by Bernard Malamud - "The Magic Barrel" by Bernard Malamud
- "Death in Venice & Seven Other Stories" by Thomas Mann
- "Last Essays" by Thomas Mann
- "The Thomas Mann Reader" by Thomas Mann
- "Hawaii" by James Michener
- "Red Roses for Me" by Sean O'Casey
- "I Knock at the Door" by Sean O'Casey
- "Selected Plays" by Sean O'Casey
- "The Green Crow" by Sean O'Casey
- "Golden Boy" by Clifford Odets
- "Clash by Night" by Clifford Odets - "The Country Girl" by Clifford Odets
- "Six Plays of Clifford Odets" by Clifford Odets
- "The Cat With Two Faces" by Gordon Young
- "Long Day's Journey Into Night" by Eugene O'Neill
- "Part of A Long Story: Eugene O'Neill As A Young Man In Love" by Agnes Boulton
- "The Little Engine That Could" by Piper Watty - "The New Joy of Cooking" by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer-Becker
- "Selected Plays of George Bernard Shaw" by George Bernard Shaw
- "Ellen Terry And Bernard Shaw- A Correspondence" by Christabel Marshall
- "Bernard Shaw & Mrs. Patrick Campbell- Their Correspondence" by George Bernard Shaw
- "The Short Reigh of Pippin IV" by John Steinbeck
- "Once There Was A War" by John Steinbeck
- "Set This House on Fire" by William Styron
- "Lie Down In Darkness" by William Styron and Richard Yates
- "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" by Tennessee Williams
- "Camino Real" by Tennessee Williams
- "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams
- "The Flower in Drama and Glamour" by Stark Young
- "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "The Story of a Novel" by Thomas Wolfe
- "Look Homeward Angel" by Thomas Wolfe
- "A Stone, A Leaf, A Door" by Thomas Wolfe
- "Thomas Wolfe's Letters to His Mother" by Thomas Wolfe (edited by John Skally Terry)
- "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
- "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
- "Winesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson
- "Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser
- "Tortilla Flat" by John Steinbeck
- "The American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches" by Mark Twain
- "In Defense of Harriet Shelley and Other Essays" by Mark Twain
- "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain
- "Roughing It" by Mark Twain
- "The Magic Christian" by Terry Southern
- "A Death in the Family" by James Agee
- "The War Lover" by John Hersey
- "Don't Call Me by My Right Name and Other Stories" by James Purdy
- "Malcom" by James Purdy
- "The Portable Irish Reader" published by Viking
- "The Portable Poe" by Edgar Allen Poe
- "The Portable Walt Whitman" by Walt Whitman
- "This Week's Short Stories" (New York, 1953)
- "Bedside Book of Famous Short Stories"
- "Short Novels of Colette" by Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
- "Short Story Masterpieces" (New York, 1960)
- "The Passionate Playgoer" by George Oppenheimer
- "Fancies and Goodnights" by John Collier
- "Evergreen Review" (Volume 2, Number 6)
- "The Medal and Other Stories" by Luigi Pirandello
- "Max Weber" by Max Weber
- "Renoir" by Albert Skira
- "Max" by Giovannetti Pericle
- "The Family of Man" by Carl Sandburg
- "Horizon, A Magazine of the Arts" (November 1959, January 1960, March 1960)
- "Jean Dubuffet" by Daniel Cordier
- "The Summing Up" by W. Somerset Maugham
- "Close to Colette" by Maurice Goudeket
- "This Demi-Paradise" by Margaret Halsey
- "God Protect Me From My Friends" by Gavin Maxwell
- "Minister of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story" by Quentin Reynolds, Ephraim Katz, and Zwy Aldouby
- "Dance to the Piper" by Agnes DeMille
- "Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It" by Mae West
- "Act One" by Moss Hart
- "Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy
- "Poems, Including Christ and Christmas" by Mary Baker Eddy
- "Two Plays: Peace and Lysistrata" by Aristophanes
- "Of the Nature of Things" by Lucretius
- "The Philosophy of Plato" by Rupert C. Lodge
- "Mythology" by Edith Hamilton
- "Theory of Poetry and Fine Art" by Aristotle
- "Metaphysics" by Aristotle
- "Plutarch's Lives" (Volumes 3, 4, 5, 6) by William and John Langhorne
- "Bound for Glory" by Woody Guthrie
- "The Support of the Mysteries" by Paul Breslow
- "Paris Blues" by Harold Flender
- "The Shook-Up Generation" by Harrison E. Salisbury
- "An Mands Ansigt" by Arthur Miller
- "Independent People" by Halldor Laxness
- "Mujer" by Lina Rolan
- "The Hávamál" edited by D.E. Martin Clarke
- "Yuan Mei: Eighteenth Century Chinese Poet" by Arthur Waley
- "Almanach: Das 73 Jahr" by S. Fischer Verlag
- "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert
- "The Works of Rabelais" by François Rabelais
- "The Guermantes Way" by Marcel Proust
- "Cities of the Plain" by Marcel Proust
- "Within a Budding Grove" by Marcel Proust
- "The Sweet Cheat Gone" by Marcel Proust
- "The Captive" by Marcel Proust
- "Nana" by Emile Zola
- "Plays" by Moliere
- "The Life and Work of Sigmund Frued" by Ernest Jones
- "Letters of Sigmund Frued" edited by Ernest L. Freud
- "Glory Reflected" by Martin Freud
- "Moses and Monotheism" by Sigmund Freud
- "Conditioned Reflex Therapy" by Andrew Salter
- "The Wise Garden Encyclopedia" edited by E.L.D. Seymour (2 editions of the book)
- "Landscaping Your Own Home" by Alice Dustan
- "Outpost Nurseries" (publicity brochure) - "The Forest And The Sea" by Marston Bates
- "Pet Turtles" by Julien Bronson
- "A Book About Bees" by Edwin Way Teale
- "Codfish, Cats & Civilization" by Gary Webster
- "How To Do It, Or, The Art Of Lively Entertaining" by Elsa Maxwell
- "Wake Up, Stupid" by Mark Harris
- "Merry Christmas, Happy New Year" by Phyllis McGinley
- "The Hero Maker" by Akbar Del Piombo & Norman Rubington
- "How To Talk At Gin" by Ernie Kovacs
- "VIP Tosses A Party" by Virgil Partch
- "Who Blowed Up The House & Other Ozark Folk Tales" edited & put together by Randolph Vance
- "Snobs" by Russell Lynes - "The Form of Daily Prayers" pres. by Avenue N. Jewish Centre
- "Sephath Emeth (Speech Of Truth): Order Of Prayers For The Wholes Year In Jewish and English"
- "The Holy Scriptures According To The Masoretic Text" (inscribed to Marilyn by Paula Strasberg, dated July 1, 1956)
- "The Law" by Roger Vailland
- "The Building" by Peter Martin
- "The Mermaids" by Boros
- "They Came To Cordura" by Glendon Swarthout
- "The 7th Cross" by Anna Seghers
- "A European Education" by Romain Gary
- "Strike For A Kingdom" by Menna Gallie
- "The Slide Area" by Gavin Lambert
- "The Woman Who Was Poor" by Leon Bloy
- "Green Mansions" by W.H. Hudson
- "The Contenders" by John Wain
- "The Best Of All Worlds, Or, What Voltaire Never Knew" by Hans Jorgen Lembourn
- "The Story Of Esther Costello" by Nicholas Montsarrat
- "Oh Careless Love" by Maurice Zolotow
- "Add A Dash Of Pity" by Peter Ustinov
- "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser
- "The Mark Of The Warrior" by Paul Scott
- "The Dancing Bear" by Edzard Schaper
- "Miracle In The Rain" by Ben Hecht
- "The Guide" by R.K. Narayan
- "Blow Up A Storm" by Garson Kanin
- "Jonathan" by Russell O’Neill
- "Fowlers End" by Gerald Kersh
- "Hurricane Season" by Ralph Winnett
- "The un-Americans" by Alvah Bessie
- "The Devil’s Advocate" by Morris L. West
- "On Such A Night" by Anthony Quayle
- "Say You Never Saw Me" by Arthur Nesbitt
- "All The Naked Heroes" by Alan Kapener
- "Jeremy Todd" by Hamilton Maule
- "Miss America" by Daniel Stren
- "Fever In The Blood" by William Pearson
- "Spartacus" by Howard Fast
- "Venetian Red" by L.M. Pasinetti
- "A Cup Of Tea For Mr. Thorgill" by Storm Jameson
- "Six O’Clock Casual" by Henry W. Cune
- "Mischief" by Charlotte Armstrong (Don’t Bother To Knock was based on this novel)
- "The Gingko Tree" by Sheelagh Burns
- "The Mountain Road" by Theodore H. White
- "Three Circles Of Light" by Pietro Di Donato
- "The Day The Money Stopped" by Brendan Gill
- "The Carpetbaggers" by Harold Robbins (Marilyn’s secretary, Margerie Stengel, remembered Marilyn reading a Robbins novel in her New York apartment in 1961)
- "Justine" by Lawrence Durrell (2 editions, possibly read during filming of The Misfits)
- "Balthazar" by Lawrence Durrell
- "Brighton Rock" by Graham Greene
- "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad
- "The Unnamable" by Samuel Beckett
- "Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog" by Dylan Thomas (Marilyn met Thomas in Shelley Winters’ apartment, 1951)
- "Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place" by Malcolm Lowry
- "The Sound And The Fury/As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner
- "God’s Little Acre" by Erskine Caldwell
- "Anna Christie/The Emperor Jones/The Hairy Ape" by Eugene O’Neill (Marilyn played Anna in a scene performed at the Actor’s Studio in 1956)
- "The Philosophy Of Schopenhauer" by Irwin Edman
- "The Philosophy Of Spinoza" by Joseph Ratner
- "The Dubliners" by James Joyce
- "Selected Poems" by Emily Dickinson
- "The Collected Short Stories" by Dorothy Parker (Friend of Marilyn’s, lived nearby her Doheny Drive apartment in 1961)
- "Selected Works" by Alexander Pope
- "The Red And The Black" by Stendhal
- "The Life Of Michelangelo" by John Addington
- "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham (Niagara director Henry Hathaway wanted to film this with Marilyn and James Dean. It was eventually made with Kim Novak and Laurence Harvey)
- "Three Famous French Romances" possibly written by W. Somerset
- "Napoleon" by Emil Ludwig
- "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert
- "The Poems And Fairy-Tales" by Oscar Wilde
- "Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass/The Hunting Of The Snark" by Lewis Carroll
- "A High Wind In Jamaica" by Richard Hughes
- "An Anthology Of American Negro Literature" edited Sylvestre C. Watkins
- "Beethoven: His Spiritual Development" by J.W.N. Sullivan
- "Music For The Millions" by David Ewen
- "Schubert" by Ralph Bates
- "Men Of Music" by Wallace Brockaway and Herbert Weinstock
- "The Potting Shed" by Graham Greene
- "Politics In The American Drama" by Caspar Nannes
- "Sons Of Men" by Herschel Steinhardt
- "Born Yesterday" by Garson Kanin (Marilyn auditioned for the movie, however, Judy Holliday got the part)
- "Untitled & Other Radio Drams" by Norman Corwin
- "Thirteen By Corwin" by Norman Corwin
- "More By Corwin" by Norman Corwin
- "Long Day’s Journey Into Night" by Eugene O’Neill (a second copy)
- "Best American Plays: Third Series, 1945-1951"
- "Theatre ’52" by John Chapman
- "16 Famous European Plays" by Bennett Cerf and Van H. Cartmell
- "The Complete Plays Of Henry James"
- "20 Best Plays Of The Modern American Theatre" by John Glassner
- "Elizabethan Plays" by Hazelton Spencer
- "Critics’ Choice" by Jack Gaver
- "Modern American Dramas" by Harlan Hatcher
- "The Album Of The Cambridge Garrick Club"
- "A Shropshire Lad" by A.E. Houseman
- "The Poetry & Prose Of Heinrich Heine" by Frederich Ewen
- "The Poetical Works Of John Milton" by H.C. Beeching
- "The Poetical Works Of Robert Browning"
- "Wordsworth" by Richard Wilbur
- "The Poetical Works Of Shelley"
- "The Portable Blake" by William Blake
- "William Shakespeare: Sonnets" edited by Mary Jane Gorton
- "Poems Of Robert Burns" edited by Henry Meikle & William Beattie
- "The Penguin Book Of English Verse" edited by John Hayward
- "Aragon: Poet Of The French Resistance" by Hannah Josephson & Malcolm Cowley
- "Star Crossed" by Margaret Tilden
- "Collected Sonnets" by Edna St Vincent Millay (2 editions)
- "Robert Frost’s Poems" by Louis Untermeyer (Marilyn became friends with Untermeyer during the time she was married to Arthur)
- "Poe: Complete Poems" by Richard Wilbur
- "The Life And Times Of Archy And Mehitabel" by Don Marquis
- "The Pocketbook Of Modern Verse" by Oscar Williams
- "Poems" by John Tagliabue
- "Selected Poems" by Rafael Alberti
- "Selected Poetry" by Robinson Jeffers
- "The American Puritans: Their Prose & Poetry" by Perry Miller
- "Selected Poems" by Rainer Maria Rilke
- "Poet In New York" by Federico Garcia Lorca
- "The Vapor Trail" by Ivan Lawrence Becker (inscribed to Arthur by the author, there is also a note to Marilyn)
- "Love Poems & Love Letters For All The Year" published by Peter Pauper Press
- "100 Modern Poems" edited by Selden Rodman
- "The Sweeniad" by Myra Buttle
- "Poetry: A Magazine Of Verse, Vol.70, no. 6"
- "The Wall Between" by Anne Braden
- "The Roots Of American Communism" by Theodore Draper
- "A View Of The Nation – An Anthology : 1955-1959" edited Henry Christian
- "A Socialist’s Faith" by Norman Thomas
- "Rededication To Freedom" by Benjamin Ginzburg (2 copies)
- "The Ignorant Armies" by E.M. Halliday
- "Commonwealth Vs Sacco & Vanzetti" by Robert P. Weeks
- "Journey To The Beginning" by Edgar Snow
- "Das Kapital" by Karl Marx
- "Lidice" by Eleanor Wheeler
- "The Study Of History" by Arnold Toynbee
- "America The Invincible" by Emmet John Hughes
- "The Unfinished Country" by Max Lerner
- "Red Mirage" by John O’Kearney
- "Background & Foreground – The New York Times Magazine: An Anthology" edited Lester Markel (a friend of Marilyn's)
- "The Failure Of Success" by Esther Milner
- "A Piece Of My Mind" by Edmund Wilson
- "The Truth About The Munich Crisis" by Viscount Maugham
- "The Alienation Of Modern Man" by Fritz Pappenheim
- "A Train Of Powder" by Rebecca West
- "Report From Palermo" by Danilo Dolci
- "The Devil In Massachusetts" by Marion Starkey
- "American Rights: The Constitution In Action" by Walter Gellhorn
- "Night" by Francis Pollini
- "The Right Of The People" by William Douglas
- "The Jury Is Still Out" by Irwin Davidson & Richard Gehman