The Books Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Marlon Brando Loved Best

Though Old Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando are not often remembered for their intellect, they happened to be prolific readers. Both Monroe and Brando had large libraries filled with books of all genres—and it turns out, a number of their contemporaries were similarly passionate about the written word.

Garbo filled the library of her New York City apartment with poetry, philosophy, and literature. Her favorite author was Ivan Turgenev, and she enjoyed his volume of essays Literary Reminisces.

Dean read the book The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid multiple times and dreamed of someday playing the cowboy on screen.

Monroe’s library contained over 400 books and her love of reading is well documented (she was also married to the playwright Arthur Miller). Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and On the Road by Jack Kerouac were two of her most beloved novels.

Bacall recalled that she and her husband Bogart both enjoyed the book Melville Goodwin, USA by John P. Marquand so much that they wanted to star in the movie version of it.

The actress was bedridden during the last ten years of her life and read as many books as she could get her hands on. By the time she died, she had accumulated over 2,000 tomes. She especially admired Goethe and had multiple volumes of his works.

The actor loved novels and one of his favorites was The White Company by Arthur Conan Doyle, which was about The Hundred Years’ War. He was also a big fan of Charles Dickens.

Hepburn said that the English childhood classic The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of her favorite stories.

Brando had an enormous collection of books that was auctioned off after his death. His favorite volumes in his library included books about American Indians and volumes of Freud.

The singer had a large collection of religious books, and his favorite was the spiritual tome The Impersonal Life by Joseph Benner. Presley gave hundreds of copies of the book to his family and friends.