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 Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn
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| Onscreen she played society girls, Spencer Tracys sidekick, lionesses in winter. But the best character Katharine Hepburn ever created was Katharine Hepburn: a Connecticut Yankee, outspoken and elegant, she wore pants whatever the occasion and bristled at Hollywood glitter. So captivating was her image that she never seemed less than authentic. But how well did we know her, really? Was there a woman behind the image who was more human, more driven, and ultimately more triumphant because of her vulnerability? William J. Mann -- a cultural historian and journalist, a sympathetic admirer but no mere fan -- has fashioned an intimate, often revisionist, and truly unique close-up that challenges much of what we think we know about the Great Kate. Previous biographies -- mostly products of friends and fans -- have recycled the stories she hid behind, taking Hollywood myths at face value. Mann goes deeper, delivering new details from friends and family who have not been previously interviewed and drawing on materials only available since Hepburns death. With affection, intelligence, and a voluminous knowledge of Hollywood history, Mann shows us how a woman originally considered too special and controversial for fame learned the fine arts of movie stardom and transformed herself into an icon as durable and all-American as the Statue of Liberty. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
"Kate" is not only the definitive biography of one of our greatest movie stars, but also a fascinating American cultural history. Most of the newspaper reviews I've read have not done justice to just how satisfying this book is on many levels. Hepburn's story in itself is well worth reading--and I don't usually care for typical Hollywood biographies--but what impressed me is that William Mann gives us so much more than just "her story." He puts her life into the context of American culture during the 20th century, which is engrossing in itself at the same time that it deepens and enlivens our sense of Hepburn--both the woman and the star.
Some biographies are slow to get started, but I was hooked on this one from the beginning. It's exciting when Hepburn first goes to Hollywood and takes up with George Cukor and the group of extremely unconventional but enormously compelling people who hung around with him. The sometimes difficult trajectory of her acting career is wonderfully told. (When she finally makes it and truly becomes an actress, the reader feels incredible satisfaction because one feels just how hard she has worked to become a true artist and how much opposition she has faced.) But I was also riveted by Mann's account of what came earlier: the milieu in which Katharine grew up, particularly the world that she was introduced to by her mother, who was an amazing character and who is rendered beautifully by William Mann. Hepburn's mother's world is a real eye-opener. From an early age Hepburn was familiar with Greenwich Village (where her mother took her to radical political meetings of a group called Heterodoxy). She was around extraordinary bohemian types from the start. Many of them did important, creative work--artists, lawyers, activists--and it was a revelation to me just how evocatively Mann was able to recreate Kit Hepburn's circle of fascinating friends. Mann's account of the community of political women--lesbian, straight, fluid, married, unmarried--organized around Heterodoxy was worth the price of the book just in itself.
The newspaper reviews have tended to focus on Mann's revelation that Hepburn was a lesbian or bisexual and that Spencer Tracy may have been gay as well. (Though this information about Hepburn, at least, is hardly news, some reviewers seem affronted by this fact; some seem downright homophobic.) But what is so much more interesting and meaningful is the context in which their sexuality was expressed. Mann describes a pre-Stonewall world that was actually much less closeted than I had realized, where "sexual identity" seems to have been much less fixed, and certainly less politicized, than it is now. Through Hepburn and her circle, he shows how attitudes toward sexuality have evolved. Mann's Hepburn is much more sophisticated and alive than in other accounts I have read. This is not a case of an author trying to "out" a public figure; it's a case of a writer using careful research to try and tell a complicated truth about someone who was raised in and who lived in worlds where sexuality was not necessarily expected to be exclusively heterosexual and where it was never easy to label the types of love and affection that existed between people. I don't think anyone is going to be particularly shocked or offended by what he says about Hepburn's sexuality or lifestyle--unless they are very conservative.
The research that went into writing "Kate" is extremely impressive (including material from an unpublished memoir by George Cukor). The research material informs the book without weighing it down, because Mann knows how to tell a good story without simplifying it: a rare talent. He scrutinizes the myth of "Kate" that was created by the Hollywood publicity machines with the active participation of Hepburn herself; it is so easy when you write a biography to just accept what others have accepted before you, but he sets higher standards for himself. As a result he is able not just to debunk some of the myths surrounding her--from her class origins, for instance, to her relationships with men--but also to do what is much more interesting: to show us how and why they were created and promulgated in the first place.
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Author: Guest
When "Tracy and Hepburn" by Garson Kanin came out, I read it over and over again. And each time I was dissatisfied. I knew there was something missing.
I would read every hagiography of La Hepburn. And yet I could not like the woman. I would read how she castigated fans who wanted her autograph by telling them that "they were not responsible for her fame" and instead of admiring her iconoclastic "honesty," I kept thinking how much of a spoiled brat she was. And damn it, she was a spoiled brat. She was a monster; a wonderful monster in many ways, and admirable in many ways, but still a monster.
I breath a sigh of relief. She did not represent some impossible romantic "ideal" for us females to live up to. She was as flawed and human as the rest of us. At my age, that is a relief to know. So thank you, William J. Mann. This 50 something female salutes you.
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Author: Guest
Nearly 600 pages of speculation on Katharine Hepburn's sexuality that misses the points of Hepburn's life that deserve to be remembered and to be emulated. Her life and her talent were determined by her family, her intelligence and personality and by her will to succeed. She had learned--and gave to others--some of life's lessons. She was generous with her time and her advice because she believed people ought to find their best.
Mann claims Hepburn was averse to any kind of physical closeness. Hepburn proved him wrong countless times in her life--she would enter a stranger's personal space to stand within inches of them and touch and hug them.
Norah Considine, Ms. Hepburn's longtime cook put it best: if you are going to read a book about Hepburn, read "Me." I also recommend the slim volume from Ms. Considine's daughter Growing Up with Hepburn. Hepburn is best told to us by Hepburn herself and those who most of their lives with her.
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Author: Guest
I love a really good biography and this is one of the best in my opinion. Well researched, it seems to me to give a well written account of Katharine's Hepburn's complex life, but also interesting historical information of early Hollywood and the studio system. I highly recommend this book -- it will not disappoint.
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Author: Guest
I could never understand why Kate Hepburn would be so in love with a weak, drunk like Tracy. I never thought he could act. He just played his bully self again and again. It never made sense what was his deep guilt that made him drink. Now we know he drank because he was gay and could not cope. Very detailed when and with whom by the author. Explains how their relationship fit both their needs. At least 100 pages of footnotes, names, names.
I always loved Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Very interesting to know how he invented Kate and Tracy. Also interesting that he was gay and how he fit into the Tracy/Hepburn image developed and produced by Kate Hepburn. Very well detailed by Mann. If you are a fan of the golden age so well represented by Cukor and the small town of Hollywood in the 30s, do not miss this book! JUST TELL ME WHEN THE MOVIE IS READY!
Kate, the real Kathy is so much more interesting to us than the Hollywood prepackaged product. It is too bad you didn't know that. The fans of Hepburn need to read this book and get the real facts. We love you even more Kath to find out what made you tick.
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