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Lot 3016

A Marilyn Monroe-received essay written by her husband, Arthur Miller, 1959

16 June 2008, 10:00 PDT
Los Angeles

Sold for US$4,500 inc. premium

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A Marilyn Monroe-received essay written by her husband, Arthur Miller, 1959

A seven-page typed document written (and hand-corrected in pencil) by the playwright, likely for a magazine article, conveying his thoughts on his wife's latest project -- posing for photographer Richard Avedon. On December 22, 1958, Avedon shot a series of elaborate photographs showing MM dressed up as stage/screen stars from the past: Lillian Russell, Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, and Jean Harlow. Miller thoroughly analyzes the results in this essay in his customary intellectual way. His interpretation of MM's Harlow pose is especially eerie as it turned out to be prescient for Monroe herself: "The closest to literal photographic accuracy, I think, is the Harlow photograph...there is a gallantry...quite as though Marilyn, even with the Borzoi at her feet and the feather boa flowing off the white modernistic couch, were saying, 'I will die, but you will never kill me.' I believe that in her heart she was demanding justice for a woman she had never met, as though by her own beauty she were saying to all the brutality in the world -- 'This is what you destroyed.' " Miller continues to examine the rest of MM's poses, ending his essay on a proud note: "She has given new life to what after all were powerful public images of our most popular art, and she has done so with her sympathy and her respect. In a word, like an artist." Miller then sent this document to his wife as the original transmittal envelope is included, addressed to "Mrs. Arthur Miller" at the Bel Air Hotel.
11 x 8 1/2in

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