‘Wonderful’ Marilyn in Italy

Marilyn Monroe: I Just Want to Be Wonderful is a new, 250-page biography for Italian readers by author Alessandro Ruta, also available on Kindle. You can read an interview with him here. (The cover photo, showing Marilyn in the iconic ‘subway scene’ from The Seven Year Itch, is usually attributed to Sam Shaw.)

“She wasn’t just an actress, Marilyn Monroe. She was much more: an icon, a symbol, a feminine ideal. Few movie stars have had such an ingrained influence on the popular culture of the last century as the Californian blonde, the embodiment of an era, that of the American postwar period. Her pin-up body, her platinum blonde hair, her features slightly retouched by cosmetic surgery were a model of beauty exported globally, and at the same time the tools of her social redemption: as a child raised among orphanages and foster families to one of the Hollywood’s greatest performers. Marilyn’s untimely and mysterious death contributed to further fueling the myth. In this book we retrace her life, her loves and her films, in a story to be read in one breath.”

Thanks to Emanuele at Marilyn Remembered