Best of
Pop-Culture

1982

Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting


Bert Stern - 1982
    The three-day session yielded nearly 2,600 pictures-fashion, portrait, and nude studies-of indescribable sensual and human vibrancy, of which no more than 20 were published. And yet these few photographs ineradicably shaped our image of Marilyn Monroe.This book presents the complete set of 2,571 photos. The monumental body of work by the master photographer and the Hollywood actress marks a climax in the history of star photography, both in quantity and quality. It is a unique affirmation of the erotic dimension of photography and the eroticism of taking photos, and it is the world's finest and largest tribute to Marilyn Monroe.In front of the camera, Marilyn was known to possess an incredible chameleon-like ability to transform herself into whatever role she was meant to play. In these pages she is goddess, siren, child, woman, femme fatale and dream date. Yet there is an air of desperation about these photos as well. In his fascinating foreword to the book. Bert Stern looks back on that momentous sitting, offering a revealing, naked portrait of Marilyn the person -- of a vulnerable, confused woman who although at the apex of her career, had relinquished control of her life -- and of the fashion world of the early 1960s, with its new openness towards drugs, sex, and art.From the glamorous, sophisticated photos which Vogue would publish in a black-and-white "memorial" spread, to the less restrained color shots which Stern coaxed out of Marilyn during an intense, exhausting session, this collection covers nearly every aspect of modern photography: portraiture, fashion-driven, erotic, and artistic. But more than a comprehensive display of Stern's immeasurable talents, these photographs combine to create an homage to America's first goddess. A woman we invented, but whom we could never really know.

Edie: American Girl


Jean Stein - 1982
    Edie Sedgwick exploded into the public eye like a comet. She seemed to have it all: she was aristocratic and glamorous, vivacious and young, Andy Warhol’s superstar. But within a few years she flared out as quickly as she had appeared, and before she turned twenty-nine she was dead from a drug overdose.In a dazzling tapestry of voices—family, friends, lovers, rivals—the entire meteoric trajectory of Edie Sedgwick’s life is brilliantly captured. And so is the Pop Art world of the ‘60s: the sex, drugs, fashion, music—the mad rush for pleasure and fame. All glitter and flash on the outside, it was hollow and desperate within—like Edie herself, and like her mentor, Andy Warhol. Alternately mesmerizing, tragic, and horrifying, this book shattered many myths about the ‘60s experience in America.

The Catalog of Cool


Gene Sculatti - 1982
    

Return of the Goddess


Edward C. Whitmont - 1982
    Argues that modern society is turning away from the male concepts of power an agressiveness and returning to feminine values, such as instinct, intuition, and emotion.

Skinhead


Nick Knight - 1982
    Features a piece by Dick Hebdige on the sociology of youth cults.

On the Good Ship Enterprise: My 15 Years with Star Trek


Bjo Trimble - 1982
    When Bjo Trimble began the letter campaign that resulted in Star Trek's unprecedented renewal after the network had already decided to cancel the show, she never dreamed her action would lead to a position as "fan liaison" for both the television and motion picture versions.Answering mail, on the set, shepherding the stars to conventions, fielding questions from the media, traveling across the globe to represent Star Trek, her adventures and misadventures are side-splitting and heart-tugging by turns.Beginning with her first contact with the producer at a science fiction convention shortly before the program's premiere, and ending with the success of Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn and the plans for the third picture, she tells the whole hilarious story of her fifteen-year voyage, boldly going where no fan had gone before.