Dr Lois Banner, author of MM – Personal: The Private Archive of Marilyn Monroe, has been interviewed by Susan Andrews of USC Dornsife:
“To understand the highly complex Monroe, Banner said that you have to understand her complexities. ‘She had many personas, not just one, and she moved in and out of them.’
There are three main takeaways that Banner hopes to leave with the reader: Marilyn could cook, clean, get along with children, and wrote very well; she had every woman’s dilemma balancing work and home; and she was not the loner the tabloids would have you believe.
Through the receipts and letters, Banner reveals glimpses of Monroe’s personality and life. ‘She wrote notes to herself at night that gave her an opportunity to think through thoughts to herself.’
Banner did not publish all the letters that she came across. ‘Marilyn fought patriarchal men in Hollywood and these letters were difficult to decipher — an intricate maze of dealings with heads of studios, chess games with lawyers, and producers who blocked a creative artist’s ability to put herself in good films.’
Banner will discuss her book at the upcoming Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC. She is an invited speaker at the Friends of the USC Libraries Literary Luncheon.”
Read the interview in full here