The Vintage Book Club Blog
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Hi there! I'm Dr. Carly Maris, and I am the founder and curator of the Vintage Book Club, formerly the Pinup Book Club. I have been interested in vintage styling and history for 20 years, and have my PhD in History.
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
I have been behind on this blog and the Marilyn Monroe reading list over the past few weeks (so I have some catching up to do!). The reason for this is that I was interviewing for jobs, and I am happy to report that I will be at an academic post next year beginning this ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck was April’s book selection. Marilyn Monroe’s copy of the book was a first edition, published in 1957, which was sold at auction in 1999 as part of a lot for $2990.00. The satirical novel tells the story of a Frenchman named Pippin, living in contemporary Paris ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
Taking care of vintage books is relatively easy, but requires diligence. I periodically go through my recreation of Marilyn Monroe’s library to make sure that there are no pests or mold breakouts, and I have had good luck. Until now. I recently found that my copy of The War Lover by John Hersey had a ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
What was Marilyn Monroe’s favorite music? We know she loved jazz. Her own music was highly inspired by jazz of the era, and she was a huge fan of Ella Fitzgerald, which we know from this famous story of Marilyn boosting Ella Fitzgerald’s career. But besides jazz, what did she listen to? Several weeks ago ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
While my primary research interests revolve around Marilyn Monroe’s book collection, I also enjoy discovering books owned and written by other famous and interesting people from history. Eartha Kitt, for instance, wrote several autobiographies (see my review of one of her autobiographies here). Recently, I was looking for books Judy Garland owned. While I did ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
Today, I wanted to share three first edition books written by Steinbeck that Marilyn Monroe owned. What was it about this author that she liked? And what drew her to these particular novels? These are questions I will be thinking about as I do my reading for this month ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
This month, The Vintage Book Club voted to read This Demi-Paradise, a Westchester Diary written by Margaret Halsey. The book is written in the form of daily diary entries of a middle-class suburban woman named Helen Fitzgibbons. Helen’s wry sense of humor highlights many of the hypocrisies of white, middle-class suburbia, in topics ranging from ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
Did Marilyn Monroe want to perform as Medea, the character from Ancient Greek tragedy who murdered her children? It’s certainly possible. She owned a copy of the play Medea as rewritten by poet Robinson Jeffers. In the play, Medea is married to the Greek hero Jason, who leaves her for a younger woman named Glauce ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
Marilyn Monroe owned over 400 books in her lifetime, and a large number of them were first editions. I have been able to add several to my recreation of her collection (including Hawaii and Invisible Man noted below). As I work my way through the books she owned to make the spreadsheet of all of ..read more
The Vintage Book Club Blog
7M ago
As you may know, I am putting together a recreation of Marilyn Monroe’s book collection–adding the same editions of books she owned to my collection. The list of books she owned can be found in various places online–in fact, when I began this project several years ago, I would use these publicly available lists. Eventually ..read more