''Of Women and Their Elegance'' is an imaginary memoir about

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

. The book uses photographs taken by Milton H. Greene in combination with real interviews of Monroe and fictional events that Mailer invents. The book, written entirely in first person, purports to express the innermost thoughts of Monroe. There are also photos by Greene of other celebrities like

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...

, and Jane Fonda. The majority of the book is centered on Monroe's conversations and interactions with Greene and

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...

, her third husband. There are no interactions between Mailer and Monroe in the book. It was published in 1980, eighteen years after Monroe's death. Mailer never met Monroe in real life, but this was the second book that he has published about her. The first was '' Marilyn: A Biography'' in 1973.

Reception

Mailer anticipated criticism for writing an imaginary memoir about Monroe, so in the November 10, 1980, issue of ''New York Magazine'', he wrote a piece defending ''Of Women and Their Elegance''. He wrote, "Before the Literary Bar: In which the author puts his new Marilyn Monroe book on trial—before critics do." He wrote the article as if it was a transcript from a courtroom defending his work. At the end of the work The Court says, "I will say that I have read the book and consider it a serious enough work to give Mr. Mailer a fair opportunity of avoiding outright censure." Mailer stated that he knew he would receive backlash for creating fictional interviews and stories as if they were real but that he wanted readers not to dismiss his work before they had read it.

References

Books about Marilyn Monroe Books by Norman Mailer {{memoir-stub