Marilyn Monroe’s love letters are going up for sale.
Over 300 items which previously belonged to the late screen icon will be auctioned off at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills next month, including notes written by her former husbands Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller.
In one letter, addressed to Mrs. DiMaggio, the baseball star bared his heartbreak at their split in 1954 after a few months of marriage.
He wrote: “I love you and want to be with you. There is nothing I would like better than to restore your confidence in me.
“My heart split even wider seeing you cry in front of all these people.”
Other letters which form part of the ‘Marilyn Monroe’s Lost Archives’ sale were written by friends including Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Jane Russell.
Auction curator Martin Nolan – who spent nine months compiling the collection – said: “It really gives you the chills when you read some of the stuff and see the intimacy and the personal nature of it.”
A type-written letter from playwright Arthur bears a hand-written post-script which reads: “Please, if I’ve ever made you cry or made you even more sadder, ever for a second, please forgive me, my perfect girl. I love you.”
And in a note she penned to the ‘Death of a Salesman’ writer, Marilyn said: “It’s doubly difficult to understand that you, the most different, most beautiful human being, chose me to love.”
Other items in the sale include a framed letter from designer Cecil Beaton, in which he reassured her she was a fine actress, and a 19-minute reel made after her 1961 movie ‘The Misfits’ wrapped which shows her happily on the beach with co-star Gable and other friends.
The curator said: “It’s fantastic to see how loved she was. Like you thought she was vulnerable and not loved and she craved love and she needed that reassurance. But she had it. She had it with Joe DiMaggio. She had it with Arthur Miller.”
The ‘Some Like It Hot’ star – who died of a drug overdose aged 36 in 1962 – willed the collection to her mentor, acting coach Lee Strasberg, who gave it to a trusted friend to take care of and auction owner Darren Julien thinks the pieces could fetch over $1 million when they go up for sale on December 5 and 6.
He said: “We anticipate a lot of fans will be here. They’ll fly in from all over the world.”