June 1, 2009 marks what would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 83rd birthday and this book is a truly wonderful tribute to Marilyn with photos from the age of 6 months to photos from her funeral on Aug 8, 1962. It’s similar to the Unseen Archives series, in that the photos are in chronological order but with this book they have combined private pictures which gives it a more intimate feel, with text by Nick Yapp combining quotes from Marilyn herself and those who knew her well such as Billy Wilder, Arthur Miller, Joe DiMaggio, Laurence Olivier and Lee Strasberg.
These style of books have become popular over the past few years, and this particular collection represents many of the images from Getty Images, one of the best and broadest collections of archival imagery.The quality of the book is exceptional, the photographs are reproduced in vivid clarity. There’s many well known images but also some of the less common shots we do not see very often.
Childhood photos are printed over 11 pages and it’s good to see them in such fine detail. Each film is represented with either stills or publicity she undertook, such as rare shots from the WWSC radio show for Love Happy. There’s also some great shots from her later years during her marriage to Arthur Miller. It focuses more on the highlights than the low-lights although those are here too, but these images would suggest a carefree, happy Marilyn where some of the other books tend to focus on the sadness.
All in all it’s a magnificent celebration of the person that was Marilyn Monroe.It’s published already in Germany and will be published in the UK in August with the slightly different title Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon.
By Fraser Penney
