Jean Stafford's Critique of Norman Mailer's Marilyn Monroe Biography

In a 1973 Vogue article republished from the archives, novelist Jean Stafford delivers a scathing review of Norman Mailer's "Marilyn: A Novel Biography," published by Grosset & Dunlap. Stafford, who met Monroe in the early 1950s in Westport, Connecticut, and later on the set of "The Misfits" in Nevada, contrasts her personal encounters with Mailer's speculative account. She dismisses Mailer's prose as overfed and hasty, criticizing his reliance on factoids—a term he popularized—and his repetitive digressions on Richard Nixon. Stafford recounts Monroe's early life as Norma Jean Baker, her marriages to Jim Dougherty, Joe DiMaggio, and Arthur Miller, her career struggles, and her tragic death. She defends Monroe's complexity against Mailer's prurient analysis, calling the book a ghoulish disinterment. The article originally appeared in Vogue.