Far from the spotlights of the Hollywood film sets and the flashbulbs of the press, Marilyn Monroe was a great reader and lover of books. Her association with writers did not stop at reading their words on the page. She was, of course, briefly married to one of America's best-known playwrights, Arthur Miller, and met a number of other writers who moved in his literary world. But she also met authors independently of Miller, many of whom were fans of her films and keen to meet her.

Through her deep research, Crowther delves into Marilyn's personal collection of books and recounts some of these meetings, like the time Monroe shared an apartment with Shelley Winters in West Hollywood, where they entertained Dylan Thomas and Christopher Isherwood for drinks (probably several drinks), after which Monroe arranged for Thomas to meet his childhood hero, Charlie Chaplin. Or when Life magazine arranged for Monroe to be interviewed by Dame Edith Sitwell at the Sunset Tower Hotel, and Sitwell was both charmed and blown away by Monroe's intelligence.

Marilyn And Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe charts how Monroe, who left high school before graduation, embarked on an impressive and progressive program of self-education, hungry for knowledge, and devouring books as an active and engaged reader. Her personal library reflects this enquiring mind.

In 2026, for her centenary, this book showcases Marilyn Monroe, the reader. Because at the end of her life, it was not her jewels or her furs, her shoes, or dresses that she cared about. It was her books.

The glamorous extravagances and devasting lows of her time in Hollywood are revealed as never before in this fresh new biography of Dorothy Parker-from leaving New York City to work on numerous classic screenplays such as the 1937 A Star Is Born to the devastation of alcoholism, a miscarriage, and her husband’s suicide. Parker’s involvement with anti-fascist and anti-racist groups, which led to her ultimate blacklisting, and her early work in the civil rights movement that inspired her to leave her entire estate to the NAACP are also explored as never before.

Just as she did with her “deliriously fast-paced and erudite” (Library Journal) dual biography of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, Gail Crowther brings Parker back to life on the page in all her wit, grit, and brilliance.

Introduced at a poetry workshop in Boston University, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton formed a friendship that would soon evolve into a fierce rivalry, colored by jealousy and respect in equal terms.

In the years that followed, these two women would not only become iconic figures in literature, but also lead curiously parallel lives haunted by mental illness, suicide attempts, self-doubt, and difficult personal relationships. With weekly martini meetings at the Ritz to discuss everything from sex to suicide, theirs was a relationship as complex and subversive as their poetry.

Based on in-depth research and unprecedented archival access, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz will leave you “hungering for more of what these two literary comets burned with: the power of a little poetry. Deliriously fast-paced and erudite, this is highly recommended” (Library Journal, starred review).