Marilyn: Her Life In Her Own Words

"You Are The First One I'm Telling This To. I'll Tell You All. . ."

No one looked like her. No one walked like her. No one talked like her. Sexy yet vulnerable, and unexpectedly talented, she was no ordinary screen goddess. Few really knew her. What others wrote, she called "Lies! Lies! Lies!"

Here, at last, is Marilyn Monroe's account, in her own singular voice. It was June 1, 1962, her thirty-sixth birthday. Famed photographer and reporter George Barris had come to see Marilyn on the set of what would be her final, unfinished, film. They had met eight years earlier, became friends, and planned to do a picture book and autobiography. Now the time was right. For the next six weeks Barris photographed and interviewed the actress. "Don't believe anything you read about me except this. . ." she told Barris. And so she began to confide the truth about herself.

Barris last talked to Marilyn on August 3, less than twenty-four hours before she was found dead in her apartment. At their last meeting, she was effervescent and eager to embrace life. "I feel I'm just getting started," she said. Barris firmly believes that murder, not suicide, caused Marilyn's untimely end and he could not bring himself to publish her thoughts or the haunting photos of that summer—until now.

Marilyn: Her Life In Her Own Words is a candid memoir enhanced by 150 black-and-white and color photos, many never before published. A highlight is "The Last Photo Shoot" where Marilyn appears luminous without makeup on the beach at Santa Monica and in a North Hollywood house. This moving book brings Marilyn Monroe back—beautiful, flirtatious, and sweet as a first kiss—for one rare and radiant farewell.

George Barris has worked as a photojournalist for many of the country's major magazines, from Life to Cosmopolitan. He is the co-author (with Gloria Steinem) of Marilyn-Norma Jean, and contributed to Norman Mailer's book, Marilyn. He lives in California.