Review: Inside Marilyn Monroes private library and the misogyny that erased it

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Book ReviewMarilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn MonroeBy Gail Crowther Gallery Books: 304 pages, $30If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.In 1951, not long after her breakthrough appearances in “All About Eve” and “The Asphalt Jungle,” Marilyn Monroe went to college: She enrolled in a pair of 10-week classes at UCLA’s adult-extension program, both covering literature.Looky-loos peeked through the windows.

Some likely assumed a publicity stunt.But Monroe’s passion for books was sincere.

An orphan who bounced around upward of a dozen foster homes and orphanages regretted that she’d never graduated high school, she moved often in her life but always made sure her books came wherever she went.Gail Crowther’s “Marilyn and Her Books” is the story of that library, though more precisely it’s about what we’ve projected upon Monroe when we’re asked to consider that she had one.Our prevailing cultural reflex, then and now, is skepticism larded with misogyny.

A famous 1955 photo of her sitting in a Long Island playground reading James Joyce’s “Ulysses” — one of 50 known photos of her reading — is routinely scoffed at whenever it’s posted online.(Crowther gathers up a sampling of misogynistic comments.)Two new novels explore the tragic life of Marilyn Monroe, but only one manages to move past the “male gaze” to find the real woman.But Crowther’s sleuthing determines that Joyce’s novel was a regular companion of hers, and she was particularly enchanted with Molly Bloom’s closing soliloquy.

As an actor who had to be exceedingly smart to play dumb blondes, she used the shoot to make “a profound statement about her social positioning.”Writing about Monroe’s reading habits demands a lot of speculation on the part of Crowther, who’s wr...