Marilyn at a benefit for the Actors Studio, 1961

Two months ago, I reported on the upcoming sale of a very personal, and rather sad letter, written by Marilyn to Lee Strasberg. The auction, held by Profiles in History, is due to take place tomorrow, May 30th.

However, Anna Strasberg – Lee’s widow, who has overseen his estate (and Marilyn’s, which he had inherited) for many years – has filed suit at Los Angeles Superior Court to have the item withdrawn from sale, claiming that last month, she discovered the letter was missing from her collection.

As I’ve said before, I don’t think such an intimate letter should be auctioned, out of respect for Marilyn. For more details, visit SWRNN.

A very private and rather sad letter that Marilyn wrote to Lee Strasberg is to be auctioned by Profiles in History on May 30th. It will also be included in a preview exhibition at the Douglas Elliman Gallery on Madison Avenue, New York, from April 8th-16th, reports Yahoo.

Personally, I find it distasteful that such an item has been put on the open market – especially since many news sites have sensationally  described it as ‘suicidal’.

All of Marilyn’s letters have historic value, of course, and should be preserved – but in a university, library, or museum. Her emotional pain should not be exploited for profit.

It was written on Hotel Bel Air paper, and so may date from the filming of Some Like it Hot, a notoriously stressful shoot.

Her handwriting is quite difficult to read, but members of the Everlasting Star forum have been working on a transcript:

“Hotel Bel Air
701 Stone Canyon Road Los Angeles

Dear Lee,

I’m embarrassed to start this but thank you for understanding and having changed my life – even though you changed it I still am lost. I mean I can’t get myself together – I think it’s because everything is pulling against my concentration, everything one does or lives is impossible almost. You once said, the first time I heard you talk at the Actors’ Studio that ‘there is only concentration between the actor and suicide.’ As soon as I walk into a scene I lose my mental relaxation for some reason, which is my concentration. My will is weak but I can’t stand anything. I sound crazy, but I think I’m going crazy.

Thanks for letting Paula help me on the picture. She is the only thoroughly warm woman I’ve known. It’s just that I get before the camera and my concentration and everything I’m trying to learn leaves me. Then I feel like I’m not existing in the human race at all.

Love
Marilyn”

Writing for the Huffington Post, psychologist Romeo Vitelli considers a new study by Spanish psychiatrist Mercedes Fernandez-Cabana. Originally published in the medical journal, Crisis, the article speculates on what Marilyn’s personal writings, as collected in Fragments, may tell us about her possible suicidal intentions in the years leading up to her death.

But most of the writings date from the mid to late 1950s, and as far as we know, Marilyn left no suicide note when she died in 1962. These are Vitelli’s own thoughts on the investigation:

“Studying Fragments was made easier by the dates of the letters and notes left behind by Marilyn Monroe. Using the dated material as a timeline in the years leading up to Monroe’s death, Fernandez-Cabana and her colleagues were able to group the Fragments materials into four time periods ending in 1962. Statistical analysis showed a significant rise in health concerns, death issues and personal pronoun use over time. Also, the period just before her death showed a significant decrease in negative emotions, anxiety, and religious ideas.

Though there were no clear indications of suicidal intention in any of Marilyn’s Monroe’s writings, the notes written shortly before her death suggest a strong sense of isolation. The LIWC evidence does not reflect what has been typically found that depressed individuals but may indicate that her suicide death was an impulsive decision rather than a planned act.

In discussing Monroe’s death, Mercedes Fernandez-Cabana and her fellow authors avoided commenting on the elaborate theories that were raised about her possibly being murdered for political reasons. Also, the lack of any notes written in the critical few weeks leading up to Marilyn Monroe’s death means that important data may be missing from the final analysis.”

With Norman Rosten, 1955

A letter written by Marilyn to her poet friend, Norman Rosten, while living at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel circa 1955, is on display until December 9 at the Douglas Elliman Gallery on Madison Avenue, alongside notes penned by Joe DiMaggio, Emily Dickinson and others, reports DNAInfo. It will be auctioned by California’s Profiles in History on December 18.

A full transcript is available at Booktryst:

“Dear Norman, 

It feels a little funny to be writing the name Norman since my own name is Norma and it feels like I’m writing my own name almost, However— 

First, thanks for letting Sam [photographer and MM confidant Sam Shaw] and me visit you and Hedda last Saturday. It was nice. I enjoyed meeting your wife – she seemed so warm to me. Thanks the most for your book of poetry—with which I spent all Sunday morning in bed with. It touched me – I use to think if I had ever had a child I would have wanted only a son, but after reading -Songs for Patricia [Simon and Schuster, 1951] – I know I would have loved a little girl just as much but maybe the former feeling was only Freudian for something…anyway Frued [sic]

I use to write poetry sometimes but usually I was very depressed at those times and the few (about two) people said that it depressed them, in fact one cried but it was an old friend I’d known for years. So anyway thanks. And my best to Hedda & Patricia and you— 

Marilyn M.”

Maria Popova has posted a selection of Marilyn’s poetry (as published in Fragments) on the Brain Pickings site.

Patrick Ryan Frank was inspired by this 1955 photo to write a poem, ‘Marilyn Monroe and Truman Capote Dance’. You can read it, or download his recording here.

His debut collection, How the Losers Love What’s Lost, is published by Four Way Books.

New York-based singer-songwriter St Vincent (aka Annie Clark) talked to Drowned in Sound about how Marilyn’s writing – collected in Fragments - inspired the song, ‘Surgeon’, on her new album, Strange Mercy:

‘Clark mentioned that she “was reading Marilyn Monroe’s diary, and Marilyn wrote about working with Lee Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio. She wrote ‘best find a surgeon; Lee Strasberg, please cut me open.’ That’s such a sentiment that resonates with me, and Marilyn was such a bright and intuitive person – she gets penned as this ditzy blonde or something, but she’s quite the opposite.”‘

Liz Garbus, director of Bobby Fischer Against the World, is making a documentary based on Fragments, the collection of Marilyn’s personal papers. Screen Daily has the details:

“Uma Thurman, Viola Davis, Lindsay Lohan, Paul Giamatti, Ellen Burstyn and Evan Rachel Wood are among the all-star ensemble cast who will appear in Liz Garbus documentary Fragments, which is being handled by StudioCanal.

Lili Taylor, Zoe Saldana, David Strathairn, Jennifer Ehle, F Murray Abraham, Vanessa Shaw, Michelle Monaghan and Gretchen Mol are also on board.

Giamatti will read as director George Cukor, F Murray Abraham will read as the actress’s psychiatrist.

The cast will bring voice to an array of Marilyn related material gathered from the Arthur Miller estate, Truman Capote estate and beyond, including poems, letters and diary entries written by and about the icon.

Currently in production, the film is set for delivery by Aug. 5, 2012, the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death.

Bonnie Greenberg is music supervisor and Randy Edelman scores. Producer Stanley Buchthal is also in talks with various pop stars to contribute to the film’s musical elements.”

If you’re already wavering on your New Year’s resolutions, take inspiration from Marilyn: a list of her goals (among her personal writings collected in Fragments) is posted, with full transcript, at Lists of Note.

This 1962 photo by Bert Stern was used as a poetry prompt at Magpie Tales, where a variety of imaginative responses are now posted.

An insightful look at Marilyn’s writing (as collected in Fragments) from Aylon Ewing:

“Her library was a deep one, she was well read, a woman of deep intelligence.  The dumb blonde gave testament to her great acting ability.  This gives us the clues to the woman within, and it this deep womanly soul that I seek to meet within the fragmentary writing.”

An unusual essay/short story by Diana Davidson is published in this month’s Winnipeg Review:

‘The horse is a real beauty. He has smooth cocoa hair and a cream blaze down his face. He is calm and proud and waits while people around him arrange tripods and shout instructions.

She looks at the teenager handling the horse. “Can you take his bridle off for the picture?”

The director snaps, “We can’t even trust you to remember your lines or be on time. We’re not going to let you pose free with a horse. God knows what will happen to it!”

Embarrassed, she smiles at the ground and grabs the reins to steady herself. She reminds herself she is good at this part. She knows the camera can make things flat or it can make things real. She has taught herself how to make the camera capture “Marilyn.”  She shifts her hips. She leans her exposed shoulder into the horse’s body and places her cheek against his soft neck. She takes in his warm earthy smell and gazes out at the distance.

“Okay Miss Monroe, we’re ready. One. Two. Three.”

Click.’

New York-based singer-songwriter St. Vincent has spoken to The Guardian about Marilyn, whose writing inspired ‘Surgeon’, a track on the new album, Strange Mercy:

‘Strange Mercy, she says, is very much about anaesthetising pain, and searching for ways to transform, “to be a whole person”, a sentiment expressed in a line Clark lifted from Monroe’s diaries for the song Surgeon: “Best finest surgeon, come cut me open.” “Marilyn was this relic of the 60s, and not particularly compelling when I was younger, but when I started reading about her, I really sympathised,” she says. “For all the Hollywood glitz, it was a pretty dark life. That line was just the strangest, most poignant line. I wonder how she’d feel about it being put into a pop song.”

The Monroe story, of course, ended badly: she was found dead in her bedroom by her psychoanalyst, her blood filled with nembutal and chloral hydrate. It was ruled to be suicide, though conspiracy theories abound. For Clark, though, there is something somehow redeeming in having been able to look back at Monroe’s troubles and find a spark that could give life to new art. “Creating something out of something unfortunate feels productive,” she says. She gives a small, satisfied nod.’

Read my comparison of two Hollywood sex symbols here

Fragments, the 2010 collection of Marilyn’s personal writings, is to be the subject of a documentary, to be released on the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death, in August 2012.

‘StudioCanal has acquired worldwide rights to upcoming documentary “Fragments,” based on the eponymous book of Marilyn Monroe’s writings, diaries, poems and letters.

Liz Garbus, producer and director of Sundance 2011 hit “Bobby Fisher Against the World,” will direct. Stanley Buchtal, also a producer on “Bobby Fisher,” produces.

Exploring a “magical, unknown Marilyn,” Garbus said, “Fragments” went into production July 5…

…Some of the world’s best-known actresses will read Monroe’s poems and letters. The movie will fuse documentary interviews, archive material — including never-seen photos and footage — live action, graphics, 3D creations and scripted elements.

Also, Studiocanal’s muscle as one of the Europe’s strongest sales agents can help “Fragments” reach far wider audiences.

“I am personally a big fan of Liz’s immense gift as a director and we are very excited about the involvement of so many talented people in making this movie a big theatrical event for us in 2012,” said Harold Van Lier, Studiocanal exec veep, of international sales.’

Variety