One of the first books I got that turned me on to Marilyn was Andre De Dienes' Marilyn Mon Amour, and as such, is the best book I've ever bought on her.

The photos are in black-and-white, which adds to the charm. de Dienes' work proves that the world didn't need colour photos to show that warm, blossoming, peach-like skin to its full effect. No, b-and-w was good enough to bring out that inner beauty.

This book more than any other convinced me that Norma Jeane was prettier than Marilyn. Oh yes, I was enthralled by the golden goddess who took the world by storm beginning in 1953, but it's that pretty brunette who charms me more. The shots at the beach, where she's wearing the sweater and playing with the volleyball, are my favorites. The shots of her in the Death Valley also exemplify her prettier self. And she does look sweet and girlish in pigtails, during her first photo shoot.

Of the blonde shots, it'd probably have to be the 1949 beach shots. Her hair was long then, and she looks like she's really enjoying herself. And of any later stuff, the shot of her eating breakfast.

The last few photos mirror the despair she felt towards the end of her life. The frightened little girl, surrounded by darkness, is clearly seen.

I've heard the saying that the camera is a mirror to the soul. In the case of this photo collection, I am in full concurrence. However, the camera needs an operator, someone to focus that mirror, and Andre de Dienes was the right person for that focus.

Great book! I am so glad you found this out-of-print book. I got the suggestion from another out-of-print book you found for me "Marilyn Monroe" by Norman Mailer. Both books were great, but this one talks alot about her beginning. I couldn't put it down. It was very interesting. Some of her books written about her say some demeaning things about her past, but this one seems very true to her life. I think because some of it was written when she was still alive and the author actually new her.

I also would like to give you a compliment on Amazon.com customer service. You are always very professional and I have never had any problems with the books I order. Thank you for your service. I probably will always order books or VHS tapes from you. Thank you again for everything!

The calendar features unpublished photos of Marilyn during her tour in Korea. While many calendars/books in the past have claimed to contain unpublished photos, a large majority contain photos we have seen again and again with maybe one or two rare or unseen photos. This is not the case with the 2002 calendar. All of the photos are unpublished. A couple of the photos are fuzzy but this only adds to the spontaneity captured by the lens of an amateur photographer. Marilyn is seen amongst the troops/and or with civilians. Seen in this way she simply glows and seems somewhat unreal. In these photos Marilyn does indeed encapsulate the word "Goddess". A must-have, this calendar will most definately become a collector's item.

This book, written by Marilyn Monroe's seamstress/maid, who spent almost every waking hour with the star during the last six years of her life, is a true find. To find out that Marilyn was a "bastard" child whose mother abandoned her was astonishing. It makes you wonder what the world of entertainment would be like had that mother aborted the child instead of given birth to Marilyn! "I was a mistake," Marilyn tells Lena. "My mother didn't want to have me." THAT's a push for pro-lifers if I ever heard one. (And I've always been pro-choice, although I could never personally have an abortion). Interesting in this book is that Marilyn had a son when she was 15, and no one in Hollywood or anywhere ever tried to track him down. Marilyn didn't want to, Lena says, because she felt he already had his life and she didn't want to "disrupt it." Marilyn had such a low opinion of herself. She didn't see herself as beautiful and voluptuous. She saw herself as fat. She struggled with weight throughout her life -- in fact, Lena found herself many times having to "let out" dresses so they would still fit Marilyn, who ate when she was depressed. Marilyn Monroe fits the perfect image of the compulsive overeater, who might have benefited from such programs as Overeaters Anonymous, if they were around at the time.

Marilyn constantly told Lena she was jealous of the poor maid's "normal" life, a good husband, beautiful young children. Marilyn admitted that she got to modeling and then acting the old-fashioned way -- prostitution. "Singers, actors, prostitutes. What's the difference? It's all rotten."

While Marilyn Monroe was making so much money just being beautiful and funny in movies, what she really wanted was to be taken seriously. She just could never get serious roles.

Her political attachments to people such as Frank Sinatra and the Kennedy boys (JFK and Bobbie) led some actors, such as Tony Curtis, to make the comment: "Kissing her was like kissing Hitler."

Lena tells all, in a very fast-reading way. One interesting note is that Marilyn liked to hang around her apartment absolutely nude. And when she went anywhere -- she never wore a bra and panties. This led to a hilarious remark by Marilyn about how much more shocking that famous photo of her in a movie standing over a vent that blows her white dress up and shows her panties would have been had she been dressed normally!

Marilyn's death was a true shocker to Lena, which makes other researchers' belief that Marilyn was murdered ring true. Lena had seen Marilyn take her plethora of sleeping pills with alcohol, etc. Lena had been there when Marilyn almost overdosed in a desperation to sleep. But at the time of her death, Marilyn was happy, not having to use medication to sleep and was going strong in her career. Anyone interested in Marilyn Monroe should find this book, as it's priceless!

This is a unique book about Marilyn Monroe from her most private and pensive moments to her on-screen persona. I found that the candid photos of Monroe on the set of the "Seven Year Itch" were most memorable. Honestly speaking, and my partiality towards this legendary screen icon will bear witness, it is very difficult for me to not enjoy viewing Miss Monroe and her beauty found in virtually every page of this book. Sam Shaw was in my opinion, in the same category/class as Milton H. Greene, Richard Avedon, and many more gifted photographers who were able to capture Monroe's uncanny - off-screen candor and beauty. This is one book that anyone who is interested in seeing Monroe during her period "Seven-Year-Itch" through the latter stages of her "short-lived" career should have. I truly enjoy reading and seeing this beautifully illustrated book.

Selected the book as the best of the worst. Was I ever wrong. Marilyn has died. What would happen and who would control the government if tapes of Marilyn with the Kennedy's brothers were made public. Everyone wants the tapes. Hoover, the Mob, and mostly the Kennedy brothers. The race is on and the bodies are piling up. Page one has you hooked, and by the time you get through all the players and who plays for who (including Marilyn's thoughts) you wonder where the time went and are amazed the books half finished. All the characters are well thought out and vital to the story some are known to the world and others I never knew. Fiction? One of the best books I've read this year

"Help I feel life coming closer, when all I want to do is to die," is part of a poem written by Marilyn Monroe that begins this book, written by a close friend. Never could a statement be more true of Monroe, for people who knew her say she wasn't happy with her stardom and wanted just a simple life. She wanted a happy marriage and a baby. She took numerous medications and overdosed a couple of times unsuccessfully in her life -- but most people who knew her say these were accidents, and that she knew her medications well enough not to take too many.

It appears to readers of books on her life that although she was a fairly suicidal person, she really didn't want to die. She just wanted to live a different life than she lived.

This book is a very fast read and a very interesting perspective. The author definitely believes Marilyn meant to kill herself, despite all the hype and investigations into her death.

Marilyn, with her depressions and moodiness, was probably very difficult to understand for someone who hasn't been there. On the outside looking in, it DOES appear that her death was by her own hand. But other accounts show Marilyn to be at the best health and close to being very happy when she died.

Anyone interested in Marilyn should read this book.

This is one of the most unique and missed books during Marilyn Monroe's so-called, "New York" Period. A interesting period in Monroe's life that immediately followed her divorce from her then husband Joe DiMaggio, and her inception as a student in the "Lee Strasberg" "Actors' School". The reader and fan will appreciate the photos of Marilyn when she appeared for the Premiere of "Tennessee Williams'" Play, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". There are also "behind the scene" photos of Marilyn preparing for her grand entrance into the Madison Square Garden Arena on a pink elephant, to benefit a children's charity by Mike Todd. Truly, very unique and beautiful photos of the late screen goddess, which I for one will maintain in my Monroe collection for many years to come. A very beautifully put-together collection of photographer "Ed Feingersh's" photo memories of Marilyn Monroe during the early spring of 1955. Photos which were stored-away for over 40 + years and were discovered by accident. This is a truly 'must-have" for the "Monroe Afficionado"!

This is a fascinating collection of stories by a great cross-section of writers. My favorite story was the touching and funny "Destiny" by Patricia Wallace. Ms. Wallace has written numerous outstanding horror and mystery novels, including the Sydney Bryant private eye series.

This offbeat anthology should find a permanent place on many bookshelves.

You know how someone says of a book "I couldn't put it down"? Sometimes it's hyperbole, and sometimes they're talking about this book. After all the tell-all books and the innumerable tv movies and mini-series, this simple comic book manages to capture something new of Marilyn/Norma Jean Baker. Her soul.