David Marshall, author of The DD Group and Life Among the Cannibals, has reviewed Lois Banner and Mark Anderson’s MM – Personal: The Private Archive of Marilyn Monroe:
‘The feeling is quite a lot like one feels after the death of a loved one and after having put it off for far too long, you finally get around to going through the things they’ve left behind. The mundane, the sad, and the funny are all right there…These are not stories that can be embellished or exploited, these are not the “memories” of those who after the fact present themselves as “best friend” or “Marilyn’s secret husband”. These are letters, legal forms, bills, personal photographs– all the personal debris we leave behind…They may not tell us how it felt to be famous or heartbroken but they remind us that people who are now known only in a mythical sense truly did pay bills, buy books and clothes, and saved old Christmas cards.’
‘In an age where celebrity is honored, where all you need to do is appear on a reality show to be “famous”, it does us good to see the mundane pieces of paper of one who truly was famous, who really did have an incredible talent, and really did hold an entire planet in awe. These books also serve a purpose in reminding us that people like Marilyn Monroe were human beings, did actually live.’
You can read David’s review in full at Goodreads