Everyone knows the classic photographs of Marilyn Monroe: in the dress she wore to John F. Kennedy's birthday, or leaning out of a balcony over the streets of New York City, or famously standing over the subway grates while shooting The Seven Year Itch. Behind the glamour, we've also heard the sad stories: her mother's institutionalization, her three failed marriages, her own struggles with mental health, her surprising death that still leaves us with questions.

Marilyn Monroe: A Photographic Life delves into the life of the star--before, during, and after she became a "Blonde Bombshell." Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (the Baker came later), she had a troubled childhood that culminated in her self-described "inferiority complex." But all the while, she dreamed of something more.

Read the stories behind her first marriage (and why she kept it secret when she started modeling), her early roles with the studios (and the one exec who thought she didn't have "it"), and her life as a budding actress that include humble anecdotes (at one point, she was so poor that she and a roommate shared one pair of high heels--and whoever had a date that night got to wear them).

Along with the stories are fabulous rare photographs and reproductions of frameable memorabilia, such as:

• Birth and marriage certificates
• Handwritten letters
• Certificate of conversion to Judaism before her marriage to Arthur Miller
• Screen Actors Guild membership card
• Picture of Marilyn sketched by Jane Russell
• Watercolor Marilyn painted for JFK
• Childhood photos
• Shots and ads from her earliest modeling days
• Wedding photos
• Images of those who knew her, including Groucho Marx, Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and so many more
• Marilyn's favorite image of herself, taken in 1956

We see time and again the depths of Marilyn's heart and her capacity to care for others. "I want to love and be loved more than anything else in the world," she once said, and with Marilyn Monroe: A Photographic Life, you can't help but oblige.