Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters

by Marilyn Monroe, Bernard Comment (Editor)

Overview

Fragments is an event—an unforgettable book that will redefine one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century and that, nearly fifty years after her death, will definitively reveal Marilyn Monroe's humanity.

Marilyn's image is so universal that we can't help but believe we know all there is to know of her. Every word and gesture made headlines and garnered controversy. Her serious gifts as an actor were sometimes eclipsed by her notoriety—and by the way the camera fell helplessly in love with her.

Beyond the headlines—and the too-familiar stories of heartbreak and desolation—was a woman far more curious, searching, witty, and hopeful than the one the world got to know. Now, for the first time, readers can meet the private Marilyn and understand her in a way we never have before. Fragments is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts—notes to herself, letters, even poems—in Marilyn's own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos.

Jotted in notebooks, typed on paper, or written on hotel letterhead, these texts reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft. They show a Marilyn Monroe unsparing in her analysis of her own life, but also playful, funny, and impossibly charming. The easy grace and deceptive lightness that made her performances indelible emerge on the page, as does the simmering tragedy that made her last appearances so affecting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374533786
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	10/16/2012
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	107,294
Product dimensions:	7.08(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Marilyn Monroe was the defining actress of her age. Born in Los Angeles in 1926, Monroe first gained notice for small but memorable roles in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve in 1950. Over the next decade, she starred in numerous films, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot, How to Marry a Millionaire, and The Seven Year Itch. Acclaimed for these and many other performances, Monroe also studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. She died in 1962.

Table of Contents

Editors' note vii

Personal note (1943) 5

Undated poems 15

"Record" black notebook (around 1951) 33

Other "Record" notebook (around 1955) 51

Waldorf-Astoria stationery (1955) 69

Italian agenda (1955 or 1956) 89

Parkside House stationery (1956) 105

Roxbury notes (1958) 125

Red livewire notebook (1958) 135

Fragments and notes 149

Kitchen notes (1955 or 1956) 175

Lee and Paula Strasberg 185

Letter to Dr. Hohenberg (1956) 201

Letter to Dr. Greenson (1961) 205

Written answers to an interview (1962) 217

Supplements

Some books from Marilyn Monroe's personal library 226

The favorite photo 228

Funeral eulogy Lee Strasberg 231

Chronology 232

Literary constellation 234

Acknowledgments 237

Editorial Reviews

There is delight in this picture of the icon as more sincere, striving, intellectually ambitious, and perceptive than we'd ever have guessed.” —Publishers Weekly 

“Sentences trail across the page, then merge in clumps, like paper airplanes tossed into a net; multiple cross-outs, repetitions and misspellings make them a challenge to decipher. Nonetheless, a certain potency resides in their runic quality…Passionate decoders of the Monroe legacy will have a field day..” —The New York Times

From the Publisher

Sentences trail across the page, then merge in clumps, like paper airplanes tossed into a net; multiple cross-outs, repetitions and misspellings make them a challenge to decipher. Nonetheless, a certain potency resides in their runic quality…Passionate decoders of the Monroe legacy will have a field day.
—The New York Times

Liesl Schillinger

Isabel Keating is a fine mimic of the Marilyn we know from the movies—it’s the same breathy, cotton-candy douceur, the voice lilting with wonderment, the same rounded consonants, the trill at the end of sentences. She sounds like a precocious child, very earnestly doing the introspective self-searching homework that the Strasberg method demanded. As seamless is Keating’s channeling of Monroe; it would have been a pleasure to glimpse the voice behind the baby voice, the woman behind the mask. The content is fragmentary, but there is delight in this picture of the icon as more sincere, striving, intellectually ambitious, and perceptive than we’d ever have guessed. A Farrar, Straus, and Giroux hardcover. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Some 50 years after Marilyn Monroe's tragic death, her private life continues to fascinate. This audio exposes her innermost thoughts through recorded selections from her journal entries, poems, and occasionally rambling notes, revealing a thoughtful yet insecure and vulnerable woman. Monroe reflects on the moments of joy and turmoil in her life, including the breakup of her marriage to the late playwright Arthur Miller. Introductions provide listeners with background information. Actress Isabel Keating does a superb job of channeling Monroe with her breathy narration. While this audio version has an intimate feel, however, audiences should not miss the numerous photos, handwritten notes, letters, and diary entries available in the Farrar hc, only some of which—via a bonus PDF—are available here. Recommended wherever the print edition is in demand.—Risa Getman, Hendrick Hudson Free Lib., Montrose, NY

Library Journal

Marilyn Monroe’s recently found introspective written artifacts and other renderings are presented without context or point of view. With only muted trumpet jazz framing the segments, there is no overall explanation of the source materials. Brief editorial notes attempt, with mixed success, to clarify and provide a “who’s who” of first names, initials, and nicknames used. Isabel Keating employs a consistent, if monotone, voicing that reveals Monroe’s humanity, intelligence, sensitivity, and sophistication. However, only in individual moments does she emotionally reflect the themes of disappointment, sadness, and desolation expressed in these jottings. The abridgment of already limited artifacts further contributes to their fragmentary nature. Overall, this production is a frail effort with a weak narration. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2011 - AudioFile