Norman Mailer. Bert Stern. Marilyn Monroe

This book is really two books. It is a biography, and it is also a pictorial retrospective of an actress whose greatest love affair was conceivably with the camera, wrote Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography, Marilyn.

TASCHEN has paired Mailers original text with Bert Sterns photographs from the legendary Last Sittingwidely considered the most intimate photographs of Monroe ever takento create a fitting tribute to the woman who, at the time of her death in 1962, was the worlds most famous, a symbol of glamour and eroticism for an entire generation. But though she was feted and adored by her public, her private life was that of a little girl lost, desperate to find love and security. Mailers Marilyn is beautiful, tragic, and complex. As Mailer reflects upon her lifefrom her bleak childhood through to the mysterious circumstances of her deathshe emerges as a symbol of the bizarre decade during which she reigned as Hollywoods greatest female star.

This book, conceived by Lawrence Schiller, Mailers collaborator on five works, combines the authors masterful text with Sterns penetrating images of the 36-year-old Marilyn. Photographed for Vogue magazine over three days at the Bel-Air Hotel, Marilyn had never allowed such unfettered access, nor had she looked so breathtakingly beautiful. Six weeks later, mysteriously, she was dead. In this bold synthesis of literary classic and legendary portrait-sitting, Mailer and Stern lift the veils of confusion surrounding Monroethe woman, the star, the sex symboland offer profound insight into an iconic figure whose true personality remains an enigma even today.