Morning Coffee with Gail Crowther: Marilyn And Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe

This event has finished and has been made available as a digital recording. Available to purchase above or as part of the Digital Pass. 

We will email you individual links to the recordings after the Festival has finished and they will be available to view for a period of six weeks* (from 5 June to 17 July). Please do not share any of the links you receive.

*Please note: some events may be available for a shorter period if the author has requested this and we will give you this information.

Sponsored by Smith Partnership 

2026 would have been the 100th birthday of Marilyn Monroe, and with the full cooperation of the Monroe estate, comes an investigation into the literary life of the Hollywood icon and actress, from the author of Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz and Dorothy Parker in Hollywood.

Far from the spotlights of the Hollywood film sets and the flashbulbs of the press, Marilyn Monroe was a great reader and lover of books. Her association with writers did not stop at reading their words on the page. She was, of course, briefly married to one of America's best-known playwrights, Arthur Miller, and met a number of other writers who moved in his literary world. But she also met authors independently of Miller, many of whom were fans of her films and keen to meet her.

Through her deep research, Crowther delves into Marilyn's personal collection of books and recounts some of these meetings, like the time Monroe shared an apartment with Shelley Winters in West Hollywood, where they entertained Dylan Thomas and Christopher Isherwood for drinks (probably several drinks), after which Monroe arranged for Thomas to meet his childhood hero, Charlie Chaplin. Or when Life magazine arranged for Monroe to be interviewed by Dame Edith Sitwell at the Sunset Tower Hotel, and Sitwell was both charmed and blown away by Monroe's intelligence.

Marilyn And Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe charts how Monroe, who left high school before graduation, embarked on an impressive and progressive program of self-education, hungry for knowledge, and devouring books as an active and engaged reader. Her personal library reflects this enquiring mind.

In 2026, for her centenary, this book showcases Marilyn Monroe, the reader. Because at the end of her life, it was not her jewels or her furs, her shoes, or dresses that she cared about. It was her books.

"Just when we thought we could not love Marilyn more, Crowther deepens and complicates our devotion, allowing us to see her clearly at last - and lay her to rest with the respect she has always deserved" 

JOHN O'CONNELL, author of Bowie's Books: The Hundred Literary Heroes Who Changed His Life