Lois Banner is the author of Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox (Bloomsbury, $30)

"Persons of genius with mysterious gifts: in many cases a wound has been inflicted early in life, which impels the person to strive harder or makes him or her extra-sensitive. . . Men and...

Famed anthropologist and feminist Margaret Mead once said that her most important attribute was the ability to be a student, to listen and learn from others. Marilyn also developed that ability in her quest to succeed as an actress and to find her true self. She constantly asked questions, read...

Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926. If she were alive today, she would be celebrating her 86th birthday, not an impossible age to reach these days of increasing longevity. The date of her birth was important to her. A deeply spiritual individual and a believer in astrology, she...

From the earliest of times, humans have ennobled outstanding individuals as icons of the imagination to represent transcendent cultural meanings. Our icons can be saints or sinners; the word "icon" (derived from the Greek word "eikon," meaning "image") entered modern English in the late 19th century by way of the...