Goddess : The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe [Paperback]

Anthony Summers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2000

She was born Norma Jeane but the world knew and loved her as Marilyn. Her life was one of unprecedented fame and private misery, her death a tragedy surrounded by mysteries. Drawing on first-hand interviews Anthony Summers offers both a classic biography and a shockingly revealing account of the screen goddess's relations with John and Robert Kennedy. 'The definitive story of the legend ...more convincing at every page - told with all the coldness of truth and the authority of the historian, but at the end of it we still love Marilyn' Maeve Binchy, Irish Times

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Summers claims to have interviewed more than 600 people in the course of writing this book, and the effort shows in this exhaustiveand exhausting biography. Overall, the book is well written. Of the new material presented, the most provocative is Summers's assertion that Monroe's corpse was first discovered by Robert Kennedy and Peter Lawford. The reason for the confusion of facts about her death, says Summers, is that a coverup was conducted to hide Monroe's sexual involvement with both John and Robert Kennedy. Since Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller declined to be interviewed, this is not the definitive Monroe biography. Still, libraries that do not already have a surfeit of books on Monroe should find this a popular addition. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club featured alternates. John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Freehold, N.J.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Anthony Summers formerly covered wars and other world new events for the BBC. He has written five previous books, including Conspiracy, an acclaimed study of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Summers lives in Ireland with his wife and principal colleague, Robbyn Swan. He has four sons and a daughter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 621 pages
• Publisher: Orion; New Ed edition (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575403012
• ISBN-13: 978-0575403017
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1.5 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #482,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #58 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( M ) > Monroe, Marilyn

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A+, April 22, 2001

By 

Lauren (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goddess: The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (Paperback)

Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe is an excellent book! After you finish reading this, you feel as though you've been w/ her every step of the way. The author Anthony Summers goes into great detail of her childhood, struggles of becoming famous, her marriages and divorces, her mental breakdown, etc. A little less than half the book is about Marilyn's death. Summers is quick to give us possible causes of the tragic event backed up w/ testimonies, interviews, and police reports. Instead of forcing the THIS IS HOW MARILYN DIED routine on us, he lets us decide for ourselves. MANY MANY MANY people were interviewed for this book, including a lot of Marilyn's friends (and so called friends) One thing this book does prove is that Marilyn was definitely involved sexually w/ both of the Kennedy brothers (JFK and Robert) around the last months of her life. Lots of pictures are included (there is even one of her after her autopsy) and copies of police reports and even some of Marilyn's personal letters!! This book is EXCELLENT, and you will not want to put it down. Marilyn is one of the most interesting people you can read about. So beautiful and talented, but so afraid and fragile...too bad this book is Out of print ~ FIND THIS BOOK: you won't regret it!!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the Best Marilyn Biography Ever..., July 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Goddess: The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (Paperback)

Anthony Summers is a respected British investigative reporter, and he's not afraid to delve into controversial subjects. Among other things, he's written one of the best-researched - and most controversial - books on the JFK assassination ("Conspiracy"). In "Goddess" Summers offers us a thoroughly-researched, extremely well-written account of one of Hollywood's greatest - and most tragic - actresses. The first part of the book takes us through Marilyn's turbulent life and film career. She never knew her father, and her mother suffered from schizophrenia and eventually was sent to a mental hospital - and as a result Marilyn (real name: Norma Jean Baker) constantly feared that she would also suffer a mental breakdown someday. Her life was a series of foster parents, short-lived love affairs that usually ended badly, sexual promiscuity, three (and possibly four, as Summers discovers) marriages, and always the hope on Marilyn's part that she could find the "right man", get married, and settle down to raise a happy family. Of course, that never happened, and Summers writes sympathetically of her unhappy life - and of her brilliant acting career, in which she often drew upon her personal unhappiness for her best performances. The remainder of the book generated considerable controversy when it was published, and it's not hard to see why. Summers argues that Monroe didn't commit suicide but was murdered - a murder which was covered up and made to look like a suicide. He also argues that she was "clearly" involved with the Kennedy brothers in her last days, and that her murder may have been tied to her relationship to them. He even implies that Bobby Kennedy may have been present in her home at the time of her death - a charge which seems fantastic, but Summers has interviewed enough people to prove that there were some strange things going on the night that she died. However, even if you don't believe Summer's murder theories, the first part of the book does offer one of the best, and most sympathetic, biographies of Marilyn's brief but brilliant life ever written. If you could only read one biography of Marilyn, then "Goddess" should be it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sad, but important book., August 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Goddess: The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (Paperback)

This is a sad, compelling, serious look at the life of a woman who drew the admiration and lust of every man she met, but never overcame a characterological loneliness. There is plenty of passion, sex, sadness, broken hearts, drug abuse, and Hollywood name-dropping for any reader - but the real action is the well researched inference that Marilyn was murdered by a frightened public figure. You have to read this to evaluate that claim!