Through the words and photographs of celebrated photographer Sam Shaw, Dear Marilyn offers newly discovered correspondence and never-before-seen images of the most famous woman Hollywood has ever created.

Dear Marilyn offers a fresh insight into the life of the most-famous woman Hollywood has ever created. Through the stunning photography of Monroe’s close friend and confidant, the photographer, journalist and filmmaker Sam Shaw, this book brings Marilyn Monroe to life in a spectacular celebration of the centenary of her birth. In Shaw’s own voice, through his diary entries and intimate correspondences with Monroe, we learn of their close friendship and an insider-view that charts her rise to stardom, the challenges she faced and her quest to find artistic authenticity. For the first time, Shaw also tells the origin story of his iconic ‘blowing skirt’ series from The Seven Year Itch. Stunning digitally remastered photographs from the original 1940s–1960s archival material include some of the most famous images ever taken of Monroe: from behind the scenes of The Seven Year Itch to candid images of her on the streets of New York City and in love at the beach in Amagansett. Including never-before-seen images, Shaw’s work favors improvisation and shows Marilyn Monroe at her most spontaneous and radiant. “Marilyn was born out of time, still she became a superstar, a myth, and a legend.” —Sam Shaw

About The Author

Sam Shaw

A native New Yorker, Sam Shaw (1912 to 1999) began his photography career in the 1940s with Collier’s magazine, photographing the everyday life of ordinary people. He traveled the USA creating reportages on such subjects as jazz musicians in New Orleans, farmers and coal miners in West Virginia, WWII, and the burlesque, before going on to work with film studios in New York, Los Angeles and Europe as a stills photographer. As well as photographing Marilyn Monroe throughout her career, Shaw shot many other film industry personalities such as Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, and Alfred Hitchcock. His work was regularly published in Life, Look, Paris Match, Europeo, Harper’s Bazaar, among others.

Product Details

Publisher: ACC Art Books (September 23, 2025)
Length: 240 pages
ISBN13: 9781788843331

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Raves and Reviews

"Our pick of this year’s best coffee-table books covers everything and anything from art and design to music, photography, and cooking...Some books feature photographs from the greats...And others feature photographs of the greats: Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, and Jean Seberg."

– "The Best Coffee-Table Books of 2025," Air Mail

Dear Marilyn: The Unseen Letters and Photographs is named as one of "The Best Coffee-Table Books of 2025."

– Air Mail

"...through Shaw’s personal diaries and correspondence with Monroe we discover their close friendship, the difficult paths of her career, but also her attempt to find her own artistic voice. The book also reveals for the first time the story behind the iconic photo with the skirt flying in the air, from the film “The Seven Year Itch” (1955)."

– To Vima Greek Newspaper

"A new book Dear Marilyn: The Unseen Letters and Photographs reveals a collection of long-lost photographs of Marilyn Monroe and explores the photographer behind some of her most iconic images."

"Photographer Sam Shaw, who died in 1999, produced many of Monroe’s most defining images, including the wind-blown scene from The Seven Year Itch. The photograph from that moment remains one of the widely recognized and influential images on Monroe to this day."

– PetaPixel

"Sam Shaw’s book offers a personal window into Marilyn Monroe’s world ahead of the centenary of her birth next year. Drawing on newly uncovered letters and journal entries, Shaw, Monroe’s longtime friend, captured some of her most enduring images in photos and film, and reveals her both as a global icon – in the quasi- religious sense – and as the thoughtful, searching woman he knew."

– The Telegraph

"...his family unearthed a trove of unseen images and correspondence between the two, which are included in “Dear Marilyn: The Unseen Letters and Photographs.” In the book, published by ACC Art Books, Shaw describes the subway grate scene featuring Monroe and actor Tom Ewell in The Seven Year Itch, and its subsequent image was his idea..."

– people.com

"Six decades after her tragic death at just 36 years old, the question of 'Who was the real Marilyn Monroe?' persists today. While unauthorized biographies and sensationalized biopics have attempted to answer that question, none have captured the enigma of Monroe quite as intimately as Shaw's camera."

– DailyMail.com

"Intimate Marilyn Monroe pics by acclaimed photographer and confidante revealed for first time."
"Monroe had many sides — and Sam lets us see them all."

– NYPost.com

"Shaw’s photographs of Monroe from both New York and Los Angeles remain among the most recognizable images of the actress — as well as one of the most iconic pop culture images of the 20th century."

– PetaPixel.com

"Seventy years after The Seven Year Itch premiered, a posthumous collection from Sam Shaw, the photographer behind the famous subway grate photo, offers an intimate glimpse of the enigmatic star."