Fragments Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters

"Fragments" is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts--notes to herself, letters, even poems--in Marilyn Monroe's own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos. These bits of text reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft.

Marilyn Monroe was the defining actress of her age. Born in Los Angeles in 1926, Monroe first gained notice for small but memorable roles in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve in 1950. Over the next decade, she starred in numerous films, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot, How to Marry a Millionaire, and The Seven Year Itch. Acclaimed for these and many other performances, Monroe also studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. She died in 1962.

"There is delight in this picture of the icon as more sincere, striving, intellectually ambitious, and perceptive than we’d ever have guessed."--Publishers Weekly "Sentences trail across the page, then merge in clumps, like paper airplanes tossed into a net; multiple cross-outs, repetitions and misspellings make them a challenge to decipher. Nonetheless, a certain potency resides in their runic quality…Passionate decoders of the Monroe legacy will have a field day.."--The New York Times