Even 45 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe fascinates young and older audiences. As Lee Strasberg wrote in his eulogy, 'She had a luminous quality - a combination of wistfulness, radiance, yearning - that set her apart and yet made everyone wish to be part of it, to share in the childish naïveté which was at once so shy and yet so vibrant.'

From her lonely childhood to the galaxy of celebrity, from the red-headed pinup girl to the blond actress, from Norma Jean to Marilyn, from Hollywood to the Actors Studio, from Joe DiMaggio to Arthur Miller, from Billy Wilder to Lee Strasberg, Jerome Charyn brilliantly tells the full story of this fascinating icon along with stunning photographs of Marilyn and documents about her life.