James Joyce to Albert Camus: A Glimpse Inside Marilyn Monroe’s Remarkable Personal Library

Marilyn Monroe’s public image was long boxed into the “dumb blonde” stereotype, a caricature she skillfully wielded as part of her screen persona. Yet behind the glamorous facade and iconic pout was an intellectually curious woman whose passion for literature revealed a depth rarely acknowledged in her lifetime. Her extensive personal library—auctioned in 1999 after her passing—offers a fascinating window into the mind of one of Hollywood’s greatest enigmas.

More Than a Blonde Bombshell

Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson, understood Hollywood’s typecasting well. She played the blonde bombshell with dazzling comedic timing and subtle irony, often using roles like Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to slyly critique the very stereotype she embodied. But while audiences saw a glamorous, flirtatious figure, Monroe was quietly cultivating a rich intellectual life.

In her diary, she wrote, “I restore myself when I’m alone,” and reading was central to this restoration. On film sets, between takes, she sought solitude with books—often complex, challenging works that even literature students struggle to digest.

The Library: A Treasure Trove of Over 400 Books

When Christie’s auctioned Monroe’s belongings in 1999, the focus shifted from costumes and cosmetics to something far more revealing: her personal book collection. Gathered over years, the library contained over 400 volumes spanning classic literature, poetry, philosophy, psychology, and even countercultural works.

Her classics included staples such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire—the latter marked with her own handwritten notes. She owned multiple Ernest Hemingway novels and was fond of D.H. Lawrence, whose works and essays she collected extensively.

Exploring Literary Counterculture and Philosophy

Monroe’s interests were eclectic and ahead of her time. She owned Beat Generation literature like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and experimental poetry by Walt Whitman and Rainer Maria Rilke. Her philosophical and psychological pursuits led her to authors such as Sigmund Freud and Albert Camus, and she even possessed a copy of James Joyce’s notoriously challenging Ulysses—a book few dare to complete.

This diverse collection ranged widely: classic Russian novels, Victorian poetry, biblical studies, modern plays, and reflections from French philosophers. Her collection also included lesser-known works like Stoned Like A Statue, a humorous survey of drinking clichés, and The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, demonstrating her varied interests.

The Personal Touch: Marginalia and Annotations

What made Monroe’s library truly special—and contributed to its value at auction—were her handwritten notes and markings throughout the books. These marginalia offered intimate insight into her thoughts and reactions, showcasing an engaged and thoughtful reader whose intellectual curiosity defied public assumptions.

A Selection from Marilyn Monroe’s Library

• Let’s Make Love by Matthew Andrews

• The Fall by Albert Camus

• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

• The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm

• The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

• Ulysses by James Joyce

• On the Road by Jack Kerouac

• Selected Poems by D.H. Lawrence

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

• From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming

• The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt-Farmer

And many more spanning poetry, philosophy, novels, plays, and even cookbooks.

Breaking the Mold

Marilyn Monroe’s personal library dismantles the simplistic stereotypes that haunted her career. It reveals a woman who read widely and deeply, exploring some of the most challenging and thought-provoking works of literature and philosophy. Her intellectual pursuits coexisted with her status as a beloved screen icon, showing a complexity and intelligence that history has come to recognize and appreciate.

Far from a shallow figure, Monroe’s legacy includes her passionate engagement with literature—a reminder that the woman behind the blonde bombshell was a brilliant mind whose story deserves to be told in full.