Marilyn was three hours late, but had an excuse. She had been at the hairdresser, trying to get her hair color to match Carl’s.

So began a remarkable meeting of two genuine American icons. One, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and poet, Carl Sandburg, and the other later named “the sexiest woman of the 20^th Century” by Playboy magazine, Marilyn Monroe.

Carl Sandburg was 83. Marilyn Monroe was 35. That afternoon, as the hours passed (and the alcohol flowed), the bonds of this unique friendship were being formed, that would last until Marilyn’s untimely death on August 5, 1962.

They had come together at the New York City apartment of Len Steckler, a good friend of Sandburg’s and a professional acquaintance of Sandburg’s brother-in-law, the photographer Edward Steichen. Steckler, a famous and sought-after illustrator, had begun expanded his artistic horizons into the field of photography.

What was said that day between two of the most famous people in America is now lost. Sandburg was acknowledged as one of the masters in American literature and a Lincoln scholar. And Monroe was no stranger to the intelligentsia, studying acting under Lee Strasburg and having been married to playwright Arthur Miller. However, to the great fortune of historical archivists – and now, collectors of important works of photography – Len Steckler, with his trusty Nikon already loaded with black and white film, and north light seeping in through the window, recorded this extraordinary meeting that December afternoon in 1961.

The images are candid but, thanks to Steckler’s artful instincts and technical skill, far more revelatory than mere snapshots. The negatives having been kept in Steckler’s personal archive for over fifty years, but only a few of the images shot by Steckler that day have been published and a smaller number made available as limited edition fine art prints.

Limited Runs has just made available a limited quantity all the available prints in this The Visit Series. 

Select images of The Visit Series will be seen in the upcoming Marilyn Monroe: The Red Velvet Collection which will tour select cities starting in July.  The Red Velvet Collection will include many previously unseen photographs of Marilyn Monroe and will include the historic, original one-of-kind large-format color separations used to produce the iconic Marilyn Monroe “Golden Dreams” calendars from the 1949 nude “Red Velvet” photo shoot. The Kodachrome photo that almost ended a career but made an icon & launched a media empire and 21 large format separations (24” x 20”), will be made available for limited public viewing in five U.S. cities.  Click here for more information about the Red Velvet Collection and tour.  Also included are three additional photo taken by Tom Kelley during the historic 1949 “Red Velvet” photo shoot, click here to see all three photographs which are all available as fine art prints.

The six photographs now available in the Visit Series are printed on Museo Textured Rag archival paper using the proprietary Artes^™ process, a process developed by Len Steckler himself, this process ensures optimum detail and contrast.

In addition to the photographs currently available in the Visit Series, Limited Runs now unveils a new, previously unavailable, limited edition fine art print which is signed and numbered by the photographer Len Steckler.
This new print is included in the Red Velvet Tour.

Click here to see the entire Visit Series.

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