LIFE was an early champion of Monroe’s, asserting in this cover story on the actress (the first of many for the magazine) that she was no dumb blonde but a self-taught reader of highbrow literature.
(Maybe that’s why she eventually married egghead playwright Arthur Miller.) Looking at this cover, however, readers were probably paying less attention to Monroe’s mind than to her off-the-shoulders gown, apparently held up by little more than optimism.
(see more photos here)

