Marilyn Monroe’s bookshelf reveals the truth about her intelligence

Doubt, however, says more about the viewer than the object. Monroe really fanetti difficult writer.

His bookshelf proves the same thing, according to a recent biography The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe. Teoksen the person described will also be remembered in next week’s centenary events in Finland.

in Hollywood However, Monroe was not treated as a bookworm. She was quickly nailed in the role of a seductive and naive belly bomb. The “dumb blonde” was a character that worked: the audience understood it immediately, and therefore it was repeated.

He just wasn’t asked to play the fool.

He was regarded as such.

All however, did not see him the same way as much of the world.

When Monroe met writers, many of them saw her as a person. Poet Dorothy Parker recognized his insecurities but also his intelligence. Also a philosopher In Rand wondered at the contradiction: how a woman who was constantly belittled had gotten so far.

In those encounters, Monroe was not a joke, but a person with thoughts.

“I have yet to see anything in Marilyn that is not genuine”, Nobel writer Saul Bellow stated after the meeting. “Surrounded by thousands of people, he behaves like a philosopher.”

His bookshelf proves the same thing, the biography says. When Monroe died in 1962, more than 400 books were found in her home: Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Proustiaphilosophy, poetry and plays. It wasn’t about decorative items. The books had underlinings, notes and markings. He didn’t collect books, but read them on the set and day and night at home.

The books also followed him to the new home, as did the bookshelf.

One of his of their favorite stops on the way home from the Fox studio there was a bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard. Between the shelves, he browsed opuses for hours and left with several new acquisitions. For Monroe, reading provided a refuge, a place away from other people’s judgments and assumptions.

“If you’re ignorant,” Monroe is said to have joked, “the books won’t laugh at you.”

It’s about was not only about civilization but also about self-defense. Monroe herself realized how narrow a mold she had been placed in, and began to build a different image of herself. Reading was not only a hobby, but also a way to move into another role: as a person who is not defined by appearance.

Speaking to the press, he quoted Goethe and even discussed Kafka Oikeusjuttu-about the theme of guilt dealt with in the work with a columnist. When a reporter asked Monroe what she would save if her house was on fire, the answer was clear.

“Books.”

Need the transformation had to be understood. Monroe had grown up in foster homes and orphanages without a permanent place to belong. The mother struggled with serious mental health issues and was unable to care for her daughter. The books offered an opportunity to build a new identity, a story that was not written for him by others.

The attempt was ambitious, but one-sided. Monroe’s third husband, a writer Arthur Miller seemed to appreciate his wife at first, but the picture changed later. Also in the newspapers, the union was presented as an alliance of “brain” and “body”.

Everyone can deduce which role Monroe played in the combination.

Perhaps Monroe’s most significant opponent was not Hollywood, the media, or men. It was his own doubt, probably stemming from childhood traumas.

Monroe was afraid she didn’t belong. Not the world he was trying to escape from, but not the one he was aiming for either. Imposter syndrome crept in under all possible circumstances, and Monroe was tormented by the thought that all would soon be revealed.

Even against it Odysseus was powerless.

The Marilyn Monroe celebration week is celebrated from 31 May to 7 June 2026 in the Villaforss milieu in Forssa.

Correction 30.5. 9:26 a.m.: In the caption of the photo taken of Marilyn Monroe as a baby, it was previously erroneously stated that the photo was taken in June 1926. However, the exact time when the photo was taken is not known.