How Marilyn Monroe Gave a Smart Gloss to Her Image: It was all about self-improvement for the actress, who was born a century ago next week. Two new volumes shed light on the books she collected and the intellectual she married.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/books/review/marilyn-monr...

https://archive.is/A2MCw

The NYT frames these as two sides of the same intellectual marriage. Miller's own tapes say he accomplished "nothing basically" during their four years and would have left her even if she had stayed in love with him, because "he couldn't work anymore." A book about Monroe's literary life, paired with her ex-husband cataloguing the productivity cost of being near her.