Marilyn Monroe: The Biography Donald Spoto

Published in 1993, Marilyn Monroe: The Biography by Donald Spoto is considered by many to be among the best of the hundreds of books about the enigmatic 20th century actress, model and sex symbol born Norma Jeane Baker in 1926 in Los Angeles and who upon dying there thirty-six years later, left many unanswered questions.

I've read only two other books--My Story by Marilyn Monroe, with contributions by Sidney Skolsky, Ben Hecht and Milton Greene, or Marilyn Monroe by Barbara Leaming--about the star to use as a metric, but this is an excellent biography. I started it shortly after the date of her birth and it took me over a month to finish, shortly before what would be the anniversary of the day she died.

Spoto, who'd written books on Alfred Hitchcock and went on to biographies on James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and other icons, uses 150 interviews and 35,000 pages of previously sealed files, including diary entries and letters, to give a sourced, thorough, and accurate account of both Norma Jeane and her world famous character Marilyn. I took copious notes and learned a great deal about the life of the actress.