Ted Jordan’s memoir recounts what he presents as a long, clandestine relationship with Marilyn Monroe, beginning before fame had fully transformed Norma Jeane into a studio-manufactured icon.

 It follows her through early ambition, marriage, modelling and the machinery of Hollywood, insisting upon a private woman concealed beneath the public image. The book is quite, in line with how Marilyn was treated. Jordan writes almost as though he has a personal claim upon Monroe’s endlessly contested afterlife.

Though, he writes with nostalgia, romantic possessiveness and the confidence of someone reconstructing a vanished world from memory, it is best approached as both Hollywood memoir and cultural artefact: part alleged testimony, part mythmaking, and another revealing example of how Monroe’s life became a territory over which other people continued to compete.

William Morrow hardcover, 1989. First edition, first printing. Light rubbing and edgewear to dust jacket; internally clean with a firm binding.