Title
Marilyn : the passion and the paradox / Lois Banner.
Edition
1st U.S. ed.
ISBN
9781608195312
1608195317
Imprint
New York : Bloomsbury, 2012.
Language
English
Description
515 p., [24] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 25 cm.
Call Number
PN2287.M69 B3425 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
791.4302/8092 B
Summary
"Last year J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote a bestselling book entitled The Secret Life of Marilyn. His is the most recent of dozens written since Marilyn's death in August of 1962 and yet the appetite for information about Marilyn is insatiable. No matter whether sensational or flawed, as most of these biographies have been, the fans always come out, in best-selling numbers. This time, with Lois Banner's An Uncommon Woman, Marilyn's fans won't be disappointed. This is no re-tread of recycled material. As one of the founders of the field of women's history, Lois Banner will reveal Marilyn Monroe in the way that only a top-notch historian and biographer could. Banner appreciates the complexities of Monroe's personal life in the context of her achievements as an actor, singer, dancer, comedian, model, and courtesan. And the new information she unearths is revelatory. Banner's credentials opened doors and she has access to material no one else has seen, from the so called "Rosetta stones" of Monroe research (two large file cabinets filled with a trove of personal papers), to an interview with a member of the Kennedy secret service detail who shared what he witnessed for the first time, to facts and anecdotes about her childhood and her death and every stage of her life in between that were either missed or ignored or misinterpreted. Like her art, Marilyn's self was rooted in paradox: she was a powerful star and a child-like waif, a joyful, irreverent party girl with a deeply spiritual side; a superb friend and a narcissist; a dumb blonde and an intellectual. No biographer before has attempted to analyze--much less realized--most of these aspects of her personality. Lois Banner has"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Let us now praise famous women
The matrix, 1926-1946. Mothers, 1926-1933 ; Trauma, 1933-1938 ; Transcendence : Ana and Jim, 1938-1944 ; Photographers and producers, 1944-1946
Hollywood, 1946-1955. Storming the citadel, 1946-1951 ; Marilyn ascending, 1951-1954 ; Breakaway, 1954-1955
Entr'acte : a woman for all seasons. The meaning of Marilyn
New York, 1955-1960. New York, 1955-1956 ; Arthur, 1956-1959 ; The Misfits, 1959-1960
Return to Hollywood, 1961-1962. Denouement, 1961-1962 ; Defiance and death.
