Marilyn Monroe’s Suicidal Letter Hits Auction Block

Marilyn Monroe’s letter depicting an extreme moment of sadness, is expected to garner up to $50,000 at auction. The 1950s bombshell actress wrote the letter to her mentor, Lee Strasberg. The undated Monroe letter will hit the auction block on May 30. Letters from Dwight D. Eisenhower and John Lennon will also be among the historical documents offered during the same event.

The first page of the Marilyn Monroe letter reportedly expressed suicidal thoughts. On Hotel Bel Air letterhead the actress wrote:

“My will is weak but I can’t stand anything. I sound crazy but I think I’m going crazy. It’s just that I get before a camera and my concentration and everything I’m trying to learn leaves me. Then I feel like I’m not existing in the human race at all.”

An anonymous collector placed 250 documents and letters up for auction. Selected letters from the collection will be on display at Douglas Elliman’s Madison Avenue art gallery April 8-10. A total of 3,000 “artifacts” from the same collector will be included in the two-part auction. During the first part of the auction a letter from President Thomas Jefferson sold for $300,000. A Vincent Van Gogh letter sold for $336,000. The auctions are being hosted by Profiles in History.

Another excerpt from Marilyn Monroe’s letter reads:

“Dear Lee, I’m embarrassed to start this, but thank you for understanding and having changed my life. Even though you changed it I still am lost. I mean I can’t get myself together. You once said the first time I heard you talk at the actors studio that there is only concentration between the actor and suiside [sic].”

Although Marilyn’s letter is undated, some believe the missive of despair was penned shortly before her death on August 5, 1962. The actress was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Monroe’s drug overdose death prompted multiple conspiracy theories. An empty bottle of sleeping pills was found beside her bed. She was buried in her favorite dress by Emilio Pucci.

Les Strasberg delivered the eulogy at Marilyn Monroe’s funeral. Hugh Hefner, bought a crypt next to the space where both Marilyn Monroe and her ex-husband and baseball legend, Joe DiMaggio, were buried. Hefner reportedly delivered roses to Marilyn Monroe’s crypt for two decades.

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