The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe is a biography of Marilyn Monroe by celebrity biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli. It was first published in 2009 and details the significant events in Marilyn's life, from her childhood to her death in 1962. He details her chaotic childhood in which she was moved from place to place when her mother was institutionalized (the best guess is that it was due to paranoid schizophrenia), her transformation from Norma Jeane Mortenson to Marilyn Monroe, and her struggles with mental illness and the effect it had on her career and personal life.
The large print hardcover version of the book is very lengthy, comprising approximately 900 pages of substantive text and several pages of appendices, in which Taraborrelli discusses the research for the book, including interviews he conducted with multiple people in or adjacent to Marilyn's life, and breaks down her filmography. The book is about 950 pages in all. The only thing that this version of the book does not include, which knocks it down a star for me, is the pictures that the "regular" edition had. Given that the book is out of print, it can be difficult to find at a reasonable price, and the large print edition was the only one available when I purchased it that was reasonably priced in hardcover. Otherwise, the substance of the book is great.
The book is organized into topical chapters corresponding to time frames in Marilyn's life with subtopics within each chapter. There are topics that Taraborrelli does not broach or even address, such as the rumors that Marilyn had been sexually assaulted as a young girl. He did indicate that it was challenging to separate fact from fiction when it came to Marilyn because she would make things up about herself and her childhood as an adult, so he only included what he could prove or, in some cases, disprove (or at least dispute). The biggest being that while Marilyn did spend a weekend with JFK, and almost certainly had sex with him, it was not an ongoing affair, and those who knew her and knew RFK indicated they did not believe that she and RFK were ever romantically involved. He does talk about her drug use, her high-profile failed marriages, and her attempt to take more control of her career, and get out of playing ditzy gold-digger and/or sexpot roles. He also addresses the circumstances of her death and why he believes she committed suicide, and was not killed, including events that happened in the weeks leading up to her death that showed she was not mentally or physically healthy. Ultimately, it is one of the best-researched and written biographies on Marilyn Monroe and is absolutely worth reading.
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