On first look this book, with it’s stunning cover photo from Niagara, looks like a beautiful big picture book on Marilyn, with many full page photos and very brief biography details. On close inspection there are glaring errors in the very limited text that make you question the authors knowledge of their subject.
The worst being that Arthur Miller is described as her second husband and arranged her funeral and invited the number of attendees. Why this was not corrected before the book went in to print is a mystery. While it was indeed her second husband who did arrange her funeral, his name was Joe DiMaggio!
Arthur Miller, her third husband, was not even in attendance. I noticed this almost immediately as I looked through the book and noticed a picture from a funeral procession that seemed out of place… still trying to identify whose. It’s not Marilyn’s.Which brings us to the pictures in the book. I must admit, there is a great selection of pictures and while none of them are particularly rare they’re not ones often seen among the Marilyn picture biographies, so for this, the book gains some points.
However, the quality is variable and some pictures have quite bad pixelation which would suggest the image is displayed too large or at a low resolution and possibly downloaded from an internet webpage.The book tells Marilyn’s life and career in chronological order but again there is mistakes in the filmography where Peggy Cummins is wrongly identified as Marilyn in one photo.
The best way to describe the book would be to say that it has both positive and negative qualities. It’s a good price, looks attractive and if you can forgive the errors, it’s a nice addition to your collection but not essential.
By Fraser Penney
