Reader’s Journal: Shakespeare pays, Marilyn reads, and the culture wars’ origin story.
By Heather Parish
One of the pleasures of writing for TMR for the last three years is discovering that the conversation extends far beyond the stage, gallery, or event space. Every month, I spend time with a personal curriculum of books, essays, and long-form journalism that explores our artistic and cultural landscape.
The Reader’s Journal will (from time to time) share some of that reading. Most selections will be nonfiction books, a few articles or essays, and the occasional art-themed fiction. Some may offer views of how artists and writers work or perspectives on art history. Others may explore how our culture evolves or how communities make meaning through creative and literary expression. All will be cultural arts-related.
My hope is that these recommendations will invite those who love reading and cultural arts into a broader arts and culture conversation. And if readers have recommendations, all the better. Please send them over or leave a comment! -Heather Parish
June 2026 Curriculum
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
By Judi Dench, Brendan O’Hea
As a theater geek and a Shakespeare fan, this conversation between Dench and O’Hea was a terrifically breezy—yet insightful—read. If you’re used to reading the thoughts on Shakespeare’s women through the lens of male critics or academic scholars, this work is a balm for the soul. Dench shares her thoughts, experiences, and insights into portraying Shakespeare’s most iconic women. She also shares her thoughts on aging, art, critics, and many other topics relevant to both life and Shakespeare. It feels light, even with the heft of Dench’s expertise and wit shining through. Recommended for theater lovers and Shakespeare lovers of all stripes.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER SPONSORED CONTENT
400 pages, Paperback
Paperback published April 21, 2026, by St. Martin’s Griffin
ISBN: 9781250386175
Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe
By Gail Crowther
Meticulously researched and quite detailed, I enjoyed this glimpse into the often downplayed parts of Monroe’s interests. “Marilyn and her Books” offers some speculative context about Monroe’s intellectual life, relationships, and reading context. Intriguingly, the narrative humanizes her. While written with some academic quirks, it is still a quick and engaging read if you are a lover of books and find yourself peering at people’s bookshelves at parties. Monroe’s final collection would have raised a few eyebrows judging by the list included here. I also liked the addition of the photos of Marilyn with books. While I wouldn’t recommend this title in particular to biography fans or film buffs, it may be a good rec for avid readers as obsessed with reading as Marilyn was.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 26, 2026, by Gallery Books
ISBN: 9781668098288
The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars
by Isaac Butler
In 1989, I was an opinion editor for the Redwood High School newspaper, where I researched and wrote (a rather contentious) column about the challenges to the National Endowment of the Arts. Specifically, its funding for art like Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography retrospective “The Perfect Moment.”
In this examination of that issue and the ensuing legal and cultural battles, Isaac Butler’s “The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars” uses the controversies surrounding artists such as Mapplethorpe, Karen Finley, and Andres Serrano as a gateway into a larger story about the National Endowment for the Arts and its central role in our 21st-century culture wars. The author compellingly breaks down the justifications of the 1990s and their parallels to today, which are often more complex than contemporary political narratives allow. An excellent introduction for events that laid much of the groundwork for today’s state-of-the-culture. (How I wish I could go back and read that column now!)
384 pages, Hardcover
Publication on June 23, 2026, by Bloomsbury. ISBN: 9781639733491
Extra Credit
For Starters: How to Launch a Theatre Company in 2026 (article)
American Theater Magazine, Spring 2026
As several instructive case studies show, hope springs eternal for today’s theatremakers, even amid steep challenges.
Red by John Logan. (play)
John Logan’s “Red,” depicts artist Mark Rothko’s grappling with artistic integrity versus commercialism as he works with his assistant on the Seagram Murals. Read the play or rent it for viewing through the National Theatre at Home streaming service. Stars Alfred Molina.
Art, but Make It Sports (interview, social media)
MSPMag.com
The creator behind the viral meme account that pairs famous artwork with sports photography is interviewed.
Gloria
Can you give a short list of Marilyn’s books? Just curious.
Heather Parish
Absolutely! Below is a smattering of the 400 or so books that were listed in the 1999 Christie’s auction catalogue of the sale of her belongings, so these were titles in her library at the time of her death.
Literary Fiction and Classics
The Fall — Albert Camus
The Secret Agent — Joseph Conrad
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn — Mark Twain
Invisible Man — Ralph Ellison
Madame Bovary — Gustave Flaubert
From Russia With Love — Ian Fleming
Spartacus — Howard Fast
Tender Is The Night — F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sun Also Rises — Ernest Hemingway
Ulysses — James Joyce
The Last Temptation Of Christ — Nikos Kazantzakis
On The Road — Jack Kerouac
The Carpetbaggers — Harold Robbins
The Little Prince — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Swann’s Way — Marcel Proust
Crime And Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Smoke — Ivan Turgenev
Redemption & Other Plays — Leo Tolstoy
Poetry
The Portable Blake — William Blake
Poe: Complete Poems — Edgar Allan Poe
Poet In New York — Federico García Lorca
Collected Sonnets — Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Portable Walt Whitman
Sonnets — William Shakespeare
Drama and Theater
Peace And Lysistrata — Aristophanes
Antigone — Jean Anouilh
The Women — Clare Boothe Luce
Born Yesterday — Garson Kanin
The Country Girl — Clifford Odets
Long Day’s Journey Into Night — Eugene O’Neill
Selected Plays — Sean O’Casey
Plays — Molière
Selected Plays — George Bernard Shaw
Psychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality
Metaphysics — Aristotle
The Masks Of God: Primitive Mythology — Joseph Campbell
The Psychopathology Of Everyday Life — Sigmund Freud
The Art Of Loving — Erich Fromm
The Prophet — Kahlil Gibran
Jesus — Kahlil Gibran
Why I Am Not A Christian — Bertrand Russell
The Philosophy Of Plato
The Philosophy Of Schopenhauer — Irwin Edman
The Philosophy Of Spinoza — Joseph Ratner
The Saviours Of God: Spiritual Exercises — Nikos Kazantzakis
Politics, History, and Social Criticism
The Roots Of American Communism — Theodore Draper
Das Kapital — Karl Marx
Democracy In America — Alexis de Tocqueville
Minister Of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story — Quentin Reynolds, Ephraim Katz & Zwy Aldouby
The Devil In Massachusetts — Marion Starkey
Biography, Memoir, and Correspondence
Act One — Moss Hart
Dance To The Piper — Agnes de Mille
Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It — Mae West
Napoleon — Emil Ludwig
Art, Photography, and Music
Renoir — Albert Skira
The Family Of Man — Carl Sandburg
Beethoven: His Spiritual Development — J.W.N. Sullivan
Schubert — Ralph Bates