4K Marilyn Monroe's Love of Reading: Books, Bookshelves Carson McCullers

[00:00:00]Photographer Eve Arnold took this photograph [music] in 1955.

[00:00:04]Asked about it later on, Ms. Arnold explained the copy of Ulysses was anything but a prop. Marilyn >> [music] >> was reading it at the time of the photo shoot and had been carrying it around.

[00:00:15]By all accounts, Marilyn was an avid, [music] even passionate, reader and both casual and posed photographs often capture her around books. Interestingly, [music] Monroe is clearly reading the final chapter of Ulysses and that chapter had caused so much of the scandal of the book. That chapter, called Penelope, consists [music] of Molly Bloom in five incredibly long, expressive, uncensored, and often deeply erotic sentences musing over the course of her life and loves as she slips [music] towards sleep.

[00:00:50]I am absolutely enchanted by the thought of Marilyn Monroe encountering and really [music] performing Molly Bloom in her mind.

[00:01:00]And Ulysses, of course, still had a fair amount of notoriety in 1955 [music] since it had been frequently subject to censorship or confiscation [music] and was banned in the United States from before publication until the landmark Judge Woolsey decision of 1934 opened the way to US publication. Speaking of censorship, how appropriate that Marilyn is reading the German poet Heinrich Heine, who probably wrote the smartest sentence ever written about censorship.

[00:01:31]He wrote, "People who begin by burning books wind up burning [music] people."

[00:01:37]And censorship struck very close to home for Marilyn since the plays of her husband, Arthur Miller, had consistently been subject to some form of censure and censorship for their daring [music] political and social commentary.

[00:01:54]Overall, books for Marilyn were at the center of her unceasing quest for self-discovery and for real meaning in her life.

[00:02:04]And in addition to books, she actively sought out the company of writers beyond her famous playwright husband.

[00:02:11]>> [music] >> Here's one of my favorite photos of Marilyn with Arthur Miller and with the great Danish novelist Isak Dinesen and with Carson McCullers, author of The Heart [music] Is a Lonely Hunter and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, which was one of Marilyn [music] Monroe's favorite novels.

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