Marilyn Monroe’s Long-Lost Cookbooks Show The Strict Diet She Had To Maintain To Stay At The Top

Marilyn Monroe was the definition of a “blonde bombshell.” How did she keep herself so healthy-looking and so slim? Well, it took work: work her movie audiences never saw. Recently, though, some cookbooks have been discovered that contain samples of Monroe’s own handwriting, and they help reveal how she managed it.

Monroe’s books

These cookbooks were revealed to the wider world in June 2021 when Siegel Auction Galleries auctioned them off. The books, expected pre-sale to bring in about $75,000, were packed full of little tidbits fascinating to Monroe fans. Within the pages of the books she’d scribbled shopping lists and even, most excitingly, some extra recipes.

The auction

The two cookbooks were first put up for sale in October 1999 as part of a big Christie’s auction of items owned by Monroe. Clothes, furniture, and even Monroe’s driving license were included in the sell-off, but it was the very personal cookbooks that drew the most attention. They were sold for roughly $45,000.

Close at hand

It’s not known who actually bought them, but decades later the cookbooks were back on the market again. Siegel Auction Galleries wrote a detailed description of them for prospective buyers, noting, “A few pages have small stains from cooking — no doubt the cookbook was kept close to the stove as she cooked these elaborate meals.”

Private lives

The auction house also observed, “These cookbooks provide a window into the personal daily life of someone whose personal life was often not her own. One imagines [Monroe] cooking many meals at home to escape the incessant limelight, or cooking beef bourguignon for Joe DiMaggio.” It noted there were also hints that the movie star ordered her ingredients from the local delicatessen, as evidenced by cards kept inside the cookbooks.