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Dear Marilyn: The Unseen Letters and Photographs
- GenresNonfiction
240 pages, Hardcover
Published September 23, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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October 8, 2025Sam Shaw’s letters to Marilyn Monroe from December 1954 were auctioned in 2014. Thankfully, the Shaw family were able to obtain these and include them in the Shaw Family Archives. We owe them a debt of gratitude for making these available to the public at large and not just to scholars and academics. Added to these are a letter from 1961, a self-portrait Marilyn drew ‘in the style of Hokusai’ with a sketch of Sam Shaw, and Shaw’s own sentimental memories which he wrote down but never published, these have been pieced together to form the text of this book. Shaw’s photographs, some restored and published for the first time, show Marilyn as she was in her day-to-day life ‘Marilyn didn’t trust her own untouched beauty. I told her she would have to trust me. She was beautiful without makeup and as beautiful in spirit as a person. She was so photogenic that her photos still keep her alive.’
Marilyn wore no makeup in the first photos that Shaw took of her in 1951 wearing his sports shirt, its tails knotted at her waist left her navel exposed and denims with the fly frayed she had bought in an Army and Navy store on Los Angeles’ Western Avenue Shaw explains how these first photos were considered too sexy to be published and ended up with Edward Steichen (the curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art). Shaw never saw them again and they are not included here. Marilyn, famously, did not wear any underwear, explaining to Shaw that it hinders the line of vision and “would interrupt the flow of sensual purity.”
Though having no formal academic education, Marilyn’s hunger for knowledge is evident in the section of that title. One time, when Shaw picked her up from the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and asked where she wanted to go, she replied “I want to see the Theosophist headquarters.” Shaw tells us that ‘Marilyn believed in Theosophy and Rudolf Steiner. As time went by, she tried Christian Science. When she married Arthur Miller, she devoted herself to the study and acceptance of Judaism. Still, whatever search she made to find herself, to find God, Marilyn was always a pagan, like Aphrodite.’
Whilst at an exhibition of Goya at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Shaw and his wife, seeing Goya’s etchings of war and violence, witches on broomsticks, men raping women, Marilyn grabbed Shaw’s arm and said “I know this man Goya very well. We have the same dreams.”
There are no grand revelations in this book but Dear Marilyn: The Unseen Letters and Photographs is full of anecdotes to die for and high-quality prints. Additionally, Shaw’s commentary gives us a tribute to a friend that is both tender and devoted.
Marilyn wore no makeup in the first photos that Shaw took of her in 1951 wearing his sports shirt, its tails knotted at her waist left her navel exposed and denims with the fly frayed she had bought in an Army and Navy store on Los Angeles’ Western Avenue Shaw explains how these first photos were considered too sexy to be published and ended up with Edward Steichen (the curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art). Shaw never saw them again and they are not included here. Marilyn, famously, did not wear any underwear, explaining to Shaw that it hinders the line of vision and “would interrupt the flow of sensual purity.”
Though having no formal academic education, Marilyn’s hunger for knowledge is evident in the section of that title. One time, when Shaw picked her up from the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and asked where she wanted to go, she replied “I want to see the Theosophist headquarters.” Shaw tells us that ‘Marilyn believed in Theosophy and Rudolf Steiner. As time went by, she tried Christian Science. When she married Arthur Miller, she devoted herself to the study and acceptance of Judaism. Still, whatever search she made to find herself, to find God, Marilyn was always a pagan, like Aphrodite.’
Whilst at an exhibition of Goya at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Shaw and his wife, seeing Goya’s etchings of war and violence, witches on broomsticks, men raping women, Marilyn grabbed Shaw’s arm and said “I know this man Goya very well. We have the same dreams.”
There are no grand revelations in this book but Dear Marilyn: The Unseen Letters and Photographs is full of anecdotes to die for and high-quality prints. Additionally, Shaw’s commentary gives us a tribute to a friend that is both tender and devoted.
September 30, 2025
the photos alone are worth the price a few errors makes this 4 rather than 5 stars
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October 3, 2025A beautiful book. Absolutely stunning photos, some letters from Sam to Marilyn. I absolutely love it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews