Marilyn Monroe Collection: Corrected final proof copy, Review copy, Magazines
Book Description
A COLLECTION OF 8 ITEMS OF HISTORIC INTEREST: HAND-CORRECTED PROOF; REVIEW COPY; CONTEMPORARY MAGAZINE PUBLICATIONS
1. Mailer, Norman Marilyn: A Biography; Pictures by the World's Foremost Photographers. Produced by Lawrence Schiller; Designed by Allen Hurlburt. New York: Grosset and Dunlap. 1973. 111 photographs, 271 pp. Original embossed cream cloth, discoloured. In the original dust wrapper, chipped, small hole to upper edge. This is the hand corrected editor's proof copy of the USA edition, published June 23 1973. In light of the pending law-suits, manuscript publisher's editorial handwritten corrections have been made to p.18, 47, 134, 162, 166 relating to Maurice Zolotov; to p. 162 relating to Laurence Olivier; to p. 218 relating to Elizabeth Taylor omitting ""Get that dyke away from me"; to p. 221 relating to Elizabeth Taylor replacing her name with "Hollywood"; to p. 257 addenda to acknowledgements. 3 entire pages of replaced text tipped in. "Hodder" addended by hand to rear dust wrapper flap.
2. Mailer, Norman Marilyn: A Biography; Pictures by the World's Foremost Photographers. Produced by Lawrence Schiller; Designed by Allen Hurlburt. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 8 October. 111 photographs, 271 pp. Original embossed cream cloth, in the original unclipped dust wrapper, a little sunned. Review copy, with publisher's slip, giving the publication date as November 8th 1973. Text complies with the corrections in the proof copy above.
3. LIFE. August 15, 1960. (Marilyn and Yves) Complete magazine
4. LIFE. August 7. 1964. (What Really Killed Marilyn) Complete magazine
5. MS. August 1972. (Ten years later: the real Marilyn Monroe) Complete magazine
6. LIFE. September 8 1972. (Remember Marilyn. Parting Shots) Complete magazine
7. NEW YORK. 10 November 1980. (Mailer on Monroe) Complete magazine
8. TELEGRAPH SUNDAY MAGAZINE. 1 March 1981. (The Marilyn Industry) Complete magazine
BACKGROUND TO THE LITIGATION WHICH LED TO THESE REVISIONS IN THE UK EDITION
When Elizabeth Taylor heard that Mailer was going to use the quote in the book, her lawyers threatened to sue for $6 million.
"Her rivalry with Elizabeth Taylor, for example, is handled even more obliquely in the English edition than in the American, but for one of Liz's outbursts, "Get that dyke away from me, will ya?" Duncan Fallowell The Spectator 1st December 1973.
On June 23rd 1973, according to the New York Times, "Undeterred by charges of plagiarism, Norman Mailer and his British and American publishers went ahead yesterday with plans to release "Marilyn," a biography of the late film star Marilyn Monroe written by the Pulitzer Prize ‐winning author...After trans‐Atlantic telephone calls with Mr. Mailer's British publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, Mr. Roth said: "We do not foresee any problems." Mr. Mailer was vacationing in Massachusetts and, according to a friend staying in the house, was unperturbed by the controversy."
On July 19 1973, according to the New York Times, "Mr. Mailer, at press conference yesterday, said he would sue Mr. Zolotow for libel unless Mr. Zolotow retracted the charge and offered an "opology." ... Mr. Zolotow, for his part, said by telephone from Los Angeles that he was going to sue Mr. Mailer for libel—that a $6‐million libel suit would in fact be filed this week or next in Federal Court there, based on "defamations" of Mr. Zolotow's book in Mr. Mailer's book.
Mr. Zolotow also said that his publisher here, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, was considering a suit against Mr. Mailer and his publisher, Grosset & Dunlap, based on the so‐called plagiarism—or, in lawyer's terms, on the alleged infringement of Mr. Zolotow's copyright in his book."
On 7th August 1973 Mailer is quoted in the NYT : "Of course, if Mr. Zolotow were ever to win his suit, a literary critic could no longer afford to expose a piece of writing as meretricious (and no author could ever be described as less than talented.)"
This hand corrected proof copy and the resulting edited version is primary historic evidence that the publishers decided swiftly to edit the work prior to publication in the UK in light of this threatened litigation, despite official protestations to the contrary.
Lawrence Julian Schiller; Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Bruce Davidson, Bert Stern, Douglas Kirkland et al.
Author
Norman Mailer
Date
1960-1980
Publisher
Various
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