Monroe writings shed new light on actress

Farrar, Straus & Giroux announced on Tuesday that “Fragments” would come out in October. Editor Courtney Hodell said the book would include poems, photographs, reflections on third husband Arthur Miller and other men in Monroe’s life, and references to works by Samuel Beckett, James Joyce and numerous other authors.

“I think the book will show that she was a really thoughtful person with a real interior life,” Hodell said. “She was a great reader and someone with real writing flair. There are fragments of poetry that are really quite beautiful, lines that stop you in your tracks.”

The book features a long essay about Monroe’s first husband, James Dougherty; notes about acting and the roles she was working on; lists of resolutions and a letter to acting coach Lee Strasberg. Monroe wrote on everything from spiral bound notebooks to stationery from the Waldorf Astoria. The writings date from 1943, when Monroe was a teenager, to near the end of her life. Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home in 1962 at age 36, her death ruled a probable suicide, although theories of murder have proliferated.
Hodell said there were passages by Monroe that “make her seem suicidal.”