Marilyn Monroe
A Life of the Actress, Revised and Updated
By Carl Rollyson
University Press of Mississippi
Hollywood Legends Series

ISBN 978-1-61703-978-2, paperback, $28

THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY TO FOCUS ON THE AMERICAN ICON'S ACTING CRAFT

In American popular culture, Marilyn Monroe has evolved in stature from movie superstar to American icon. Monroe's own understanding of her place in the American imagination, and her effort to perfect her talent as an actress, are explored with great sensitivity in Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress, Revised and Updated (University Press of Mississippi).

Biographer Carl Rollyson's engaging and meticulous narrative shows how movies became crucial events in the shaping of her identity. He explores Monroe's enduring gifts as a creative artist, discussing how her smaller roles in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve established the context for her career, while in-depth chapters on her more important roles in Bus Stop, Some Like It Hot, and The Misfits provide the centerpiece of his examination of her life and career.

Through extensive interviews with many of Monroe's colleagues, close friends, and other biographers, as well as a careful rethinking of the literature written about her, Rollyson is able to describe her use of Method acting, her studies with Michael Chekhov and with Lee Strasberg, head of the Actors Studio in New York. The author also analyzes several of Monroe's own drawings, diary notes, and letters that have become recently available. 

From this comprehensive, yet critically measured wealth of material, Rollyson offers a distinctive and insightful portrait of Marilyn Monroe, highlighted by new perspectives that clearly depict the central importance of acting to the authentic aspects of her being. This edition of Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress features new photographs not included in the original publication as well as an afterword that squarely confronts the conspiracy theories about Monroe's death.

CARL ROLLYSON is the advisory editor of University Press of Mississippi's Hollywood Legends Series and the author of several biographies, including Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews (published by University Press of Mississippi); American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath; and Amy Lowell Anew: A Biography. He is a professor of journalism at Baruch College, the City University of New York