Marilyn Monroe's amazing book collection

Life is short, especially for some unlucky people. Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926, and died on August 5, 1962, at the age of 36.

Marilyn Monroe appears to have devoted much of her short life to reading. Testimony to her love for reading is the library she left behind after her death, containing more than 400 books.

After Monroe's death, the collection was put up for auction along with other belongings. Sadly, it is now in disrepair.

However, a list of Monroe's library remains. Let's have a look at some notable titles.

'The Invisible Man' is the masterpiece of black American writer Ralph Ellison.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' was published in 1925, the year before Marilyn Monroe was born. Fitzgerald was 28 at the time.

Bernard Malamud is an American Jewish writer. 'The Assistant' is the story of a young man who lives and works (as an assistant) in a Jewish owner's dreary shop.

'A Streetcar Named Desire' is a play by American playwright Tennessee Williams. It has also been made into a movie. The photograph is one of them, 'A Streetcar Named Desire' (1951) directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.

'Tender Is the Night,' another work by Fitzgerald, much longer than 'The Great Gatsby.'

'The Sun Also Rises' is Ernest Hemingway's first work and it is often regarded as his best.

Sherwood Anderson was born in 1876. 'Winesburg Ohio' is a series of short stories set in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio, depicting ordinary people living in the town.

'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' is a masterpiece of American literature. It's the sequel to 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.'

John Hersey is an American journalist. His writings include 'Hiroshima,' a report on the consequences of the atomic bomb. 'The War Lover' was made into a movie in 1962 starring Steve McQueen.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer who lived in the first half of the 19th century. Poe's unique sense of devastation, such as in 'The Fall of the House of Usher' and 'The Masque of the Red Death,' stays with you after reading. Monroe owned the Penguin Books anthology, 'Portable Poe.'

William Somerset Maugham was an English writer. Both long and short stories are famous. Born in 1874, died in 1965 at the age of 91. He also worked as an intelligence officer (that is, a spy) during World War I. 'In Summary' is an autobiography, a brief and literal account of his life.

Woody Guthrie was an American who influenced Bob Dylan, among others. 'Bound For Glory' is an autobiography with elements of fiction.

Marilyn Monroe also read French literature, an example of this is Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary'. It's likely she picked up an English translation.

Joseph Conrad is an English writer of Polish origin. In 'The Secret Agent,' London is the setting, and the main character is instructed to bomb the Greenwich Observatory.

Dylan Thomas is mostly known as a poet, but his short stories also have a strong following. 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog' is one such book.

James Joyce (1882-1941) was an Irish writer. His representative work is 'Ulysses,' but it might be a good idea to start with his early collection of short stories, 'Dubliners.'

Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet and another of Marilyn's favorites.

A.E. Housman (1859-1936) was an English poet and classicist. 'A Shropshire Lad' is also included in 'Housman's Complete Poems.'

Marion L. Starkey (1901-1991) was an American writer. Like many Americans, Marilyn Monroe was interested in the history of the Salem Witch Trials in 17th-century America.

Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) was an American mythologist. This book is a comparative of world mythology at a glance.

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) was a Greek writer best known for 'Zorba the Greek' (1946). 'The Last Temptation' is a philosophical and thought-provoking work.

In Russian literature, hiding behind big names like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, Turgenev may have been somewhat overshadowed, but Marilyn Monroe read his work.

Carson McCullers is a writer from the American South. Her representative works include 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' (1940).

Grace Paley is an American short story writer of Jewish Ukrainian roots. She is known as a prolific writer.

Anita Loos, who was active as a Hollywood screenwriter, published a novel in 1925: 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady.' It had the form of a young girl's diary and was later made into a musical on Broadway. Subsequently, the Broadway musical was adapted into a movie, 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,' in 1953.

Marilyn Monroe plays Lorelei in the movie 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.' It would therefore be logical that she had the original book for research, but it was not included in the collection list.

Also conspicuously absent from the list is any work by Arthur Miller. It's possible that she had plays from her ex-husband but that they were simply not on the (incomplete) list. However, as the couple had a painful separation, she may have also just thrown his works into the trash.

Curious about what else Marilyn Monroe read? You can check it out on LibraryThing, where the list also includes Einstein, Oppenheimer, Spinoza, and many more.