My Story [Hardcover]

Marilyn Monroe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

Little known and long unavailable, this autobiography, written by actress and starlet Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), describes her early adolescence, her rise in the film industry from bit player to celebrity, and her marriage to Joe DiMaggio.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Though now dead longer than she was alive, Monroe continues to captivate and hypnotize. Released in 1974, a dozen years after her apparent suicide, this book is attributed to Monroe, although she had help from her friend Oscar-winning screenwriter Ben Hecht. Monroe offers biographical material as well as dirt on fellow Hollywood stars. Best to take some of this with a grain of salt but good fun nonetheless. Monroe's legions of fans will keep this one circulating.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Press; 1 edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815411022
• ISBN-13: 978-0815411024
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,325,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sad Reflections of Lonely Little Girl and Woman, January 24, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Story (Hardcover)

There is a lot of disagreement about the authenticity of this material. Because of that, I have rated the book as three stars . . . to reflect not giving it a rating. I simply cannot tell if the book is authentic or not. If it is authentic, it reflects either someone living in a nightmare world or has been too heavily rewritten. Perhaps we will never know for sure.

Whether you read the book as Ms. Monroe's own words about the truth of her life, or as a fictionalized account of her life by her or someone else, you will be seared by the loneliness and desolation depicted. About being seven the book says, "I thought the people I lived with were my parents." "My mother . . . was the pretty woman [who sometimes visited] who never smiled."

The new introduction by Andrea Dworkin is marvelous for summarizing the book. "This memoir, the authorship of which is in some dispute, tells the childhod story of the world's loneliest orphan." She nicely captures the most emotionally wrenching moments in the book. Ms. Dworkin goes on to say, "I miss Marilyn. I wish I had known her."

From the point of view of the story, the book can be divided into three parts. First is the young Norma Jean growing up in foster homes. Second is the young adult trying to get work in motion pictures. Third is the beginning of a star's career. The book abruptly ends while Ms. Monroe is recounting her entertaining of U.S. troops in Korea during her honeymoon with Joe DiMaggio.

Ms. Monroe never knew her father except by a photograph her mother showed her. Ms. Monroe's mother could not afford to raise her, and eventually was committed to a mental institution -- a problem that many people in her family had experienced. Ms. Monroe was raised like an orphan even though a family friend adopted her. Her poverty dogged her well into her twenties. "I often felt lonely and wanted to die." Many such statements occur in the book, heavily foreshadowing Ms. Monroe early death.

Initially, her foster home status and pitiful clothes during the Depression set Ms. Monroe apart. No one wanted to associate with her. She tells the story of how one day she borrowed a too small sweater from a "step sister" and created a commotion with the boys in class due to her developing figure. From then on, she was apart because of the powerful physical attraction her appearance created for many men and the threat she represented to many women.

She tells stories of being molested and of receiving many unwanted and inappropriate advances while young. Her escape from all this was a marriage as a young teenager. The marriage did not work, but it got her out of the foster homes. At that point, she no longer considered herself as being Norma Jean, even though she would later revert to that personna at times when she craved attention.

Being an aspiring starlet mainly meant being hungry and fighting off the casting couch. There are several stories here about opportunities she had to marry wealthy men she did not love, that seem like day dreams rather than reality. Who knows? Undoubtedly, she received unwanted attention even more now. The book contains many black-and-white and color photographs that display an unusually attractive young woman. "Sundays were the loneliest." "I went to sleep hungry and woke up hungry."

Because she was beautiful, she was in demand as a date for publicity-hungry stars. She mostly avoided this scene, but would participate when she was really hungry (for the buffets). This section also tells about how her car was repossessed and she posed nude to get $50 to retrieve it.

Here is a flavor of the writing that makes people suspicious of the authorship. "I was the kind of girl they found dead in a hall bedroom with an empty bottle of . . . pills . . . ." This was "the Hollywood of failures." "We were the prettiest tribe of panhandlers that ever overran a town." "And all around us were the wolves."

As a movie star, her early roles all involved being a sex object. During this time, she experienced her first real love, but he did not love her. She did discover she liked sex. She worked on her education and her acting, so she could more fully participate in her world.

Whether the book is authentic or not, undoubtedly Ms. Monroe's life was heavily affected by her lack of family connections, her poverty, and her appearance. What would your life have been like if this had happened to you? How could she have taken a different path, and had a happier life? These last two questions will haunt you . . . no matter what this book represents.

Look beyond the surface appearance of beauty or ugliness to find the beating heart of truth beneath!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "My Story" Based on Interviews with Marilyn, November 4, 2001

By 

Gary Vitacco-Robles (Trinity, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Story (Hardcover)

"My Story" has generated controversy since its publication in
1974. After perusing the above reviews, it appears to continue this legacy. Milton Greene, Marilyn's former vice president of Marilyn Monroe Productions, claimed to have the original manuscript allegedly typed by Marilyn. Greene published it in hardcover for the first time twelve years after Marilyn's death. However, the roots of this project stemmed from serialized newspaper articles for London's The Empire News in 1954. Supposedly, the writing was ghosted by Ben Hecht as told to him by Marilyn in interviews. It reads as if Marilyn was speaking and is obviously edited to resemble an autobiographical account. Of course, Marilyn was given the byline in the newspaper. Marilyn's account of childhood sexual abuse is harrowing. When Marilyn's estate was auctioned by Christie's in NYC in 1999, excerpts from this book were used to illustrate and authenticate her white baby grand piano, a gift from her mother in childhood.
Gary Vitacco-Robles, author of "Cursum Perficio: Marilyn Monroe's Brentwood Hacienda

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a marilyn fan necessity, July 14, 2003

By 

Elizabeth Roberts-Zibbel (bowling green ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Story (Hardcover)

Whether you believe that Marilyn herself or friend Ben Hecht wrote this book, it is a must-own for any collector. With short, charming chapters that you can almost hear being whispered to you in Marilyn's little girl voice, the book truly captures her persona. How awful to get to the end, knowing her troubles are barely beginning!