Kate: The Woman Who Was Katharine Hepburn

Kate: The Woman Who Was Katharine Hepburn

by WilliamJ.Mann (Author)

Synopsis

By the time of her death in 2003 at the age of ninety-six, Katharine Hepburn had long been an American institution. The following year, Cate Blanchett's striking depiction of Hepburn's eccentricity in "The Aviator" reminded audiences of the sheer complexity of the woman. William Mann charts the journey by which Kathy Hepburn of Hartford, Connecticut, became the star known simply as 'Kate', dazzling audiences for fifty years in the company of such luminaries as Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and, most memorably, Spencer Tracy, with whom she made nine movies and conducted a long off-screen romance. Hepburn won her fourth Oscar aged seventy-four and made her swansong movie at eighty-seven. Across seventy years in the public eye, she was a cut above the usual screen queen. Now William Mann looks beyond the legend to consider apart the life and the persona of Katharine Hepburn, from her movies, her loves, her bisexuality and her extraordinary life in the golden age of film-making.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 656
Edition: Main
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 19 Oct 2006

ISBN 10: 0571229778
ISBN 13: 9780571229772
Book Overview: Kate: The Woman Who Was Katharine Hepburn by William J. Mann is the sparkling biography of one of the most fascinating, enduring and popular of Hollywood icons.

Media Reviews
William J. Mann's biography of Katharine Hepburn deepens the focus on the singular life of this spectacular 20th century personality. An extraordinary job of research, and a tremendously satisfying presentation. This is solid craftsmanship, entertaining, well presented and completely satisfying. --Marc Eliot, author of Cary Grant
Katharine Hepburn is a 10,000 piece jigsaw. I would have defied anyone to have assembled the puzzle as beautifully as William Mann has done. What a job! This is one of the best books ever written about a movie star and the complexities and compromises involved with fame and celebrity. It delves intimately, candidly, mesmerizingly, into Hepburn's 'dual' sexuality as a key to her persona. The reporting is fresh and persuasive, the tone intelligent and compassionate. This is the book that finally pierces the mystery of the human being behind the legend. I couldn't stop reading--or thinking--about it. --Patrick McGilligan, author of George Cukor : A Double Life and Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light
She wrote memoirs, she gave interviews, and she talked, talked, talked. We thought we knew everything about Katharine Hepburn, but we actually knew only what she wanted us to know. Kat e, William J. Mann's exciting new biography, pulls back those carefully drawn curtains to reveal the real Hepburn--a different but far more interesting woman than the one we thought we knew. --Gerald Clarke, author of Capote William J. Mann's biography of Katharine Hepburn deepens the focus on the singular life of this spectacular 20th century personality. An extraordinary job of research, and a tremendously satisfying presentation. This is solid craftsmanship, entertaining, well presented and completely satisfying. --Marc Eliot, author of Cary Grant
Katharine Hepburn is a 10,000 piece jigsaw. I would have defied anyone to have assembled the puzzle as beautifully as William Mann has done. What a job! This is one of the best books ever written about a movie star and the complexities and compromises involved with fame and celebrity. It delves intimately, candidly, mesmerizingly, into Hepburn's 'dual' sexuality as a key to her persona. The reporting is fresh and persuasive, the tone intelligent and compassionate. This is the book that finally pierces the mystery of the human being behind the legend. I couldn't stop reading--or thinking--about it. --Patrick McGilligan, author of George Cukor : A Double Life and Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light The time is ripe, the author is right, for this eye-opening biography. With humor and a sympathy unclouded by awe, Mann dismantles the elaborate charade that went into the Katharine Hepburn mystique. Not least fascinating is theambiguous sexuality that lay behind the deceptively straightforward image, carefully crafted by Hepburn herself with the eager compliance of reporters and fans. --Molly Haskell, author of From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies
Kat e is a fascinating exploration into the secret life of one of Hollywood's greatest icons. I thought I knew a lot about Katharine Hepburn until I read William J. Mann's stunning biography. He has explored and explained her vulnerabilities, her fears, and most of all her intense, passionate friendships with other women. The story turns out to be richer and more amazing than I could have imagined. Mann's account is mesmerizing and well researched; he is psychologically acute without ever being clinical, deeply respectful without being reverential. Plus, Kat e is a wonderful read--I could not put it down. --Patricia Bosworth, author of Diane Arbus: A Biography William Mann has produced a significant biography of a woman whose complicated personality ahs never been fully captured. He has presented not only an intriguing portrait of Katharine Hepburn but also an accurate picture of her Hollywood and the difficult business of stardom. --Gore Vidal William Mann's Kate promises and delivers the woman who was Hepburn as no previous book has done. Mann's research is awe-inspiring, but his wonderfully readable account of Hepburn's ambitions, personality, and needs adds up to much more than that. It makes vivid a life that is -- on the page -- like its subject: unflinching, clear-eyed, and compassionate. I doubt very much we will have a more authoritative or fascinating Kate. --Steven Bach, author of Final Cut and Leni: TheLife and Work of Leni Riefenstahl Biography is often the greatest form of fiction, pretending to do what only novels really can---present people all-of-a-piece. In that paradoxical sense, William Mann's Kate is a novel work of biography, indeed. Elegantly written, rich in detail, a model of thorough research, it dispenses with the need to turn an icon as complex as Hepburn into something black or white. This fullest-ever portrait of the lioness is painted in all the ambiguous shades of gray she shared with us lesser mortals. Careful and contemplative in separating life from legend, Mann sheds bright new light on both. --Barry Paris, author of Garbo, Louise Brooks and Audrey Hepburn Mann makes major corrections to earlier Hepburn biographies, creating a picture of a complex woman rather than the icon she worked hard to become in the public's eye. Prepare yourself for Mann's shattering of the legend. -- Publishers Weekly Book Life, Fall Harvest Best Books
Mann considers the vibrant life of a 20th-century icon with encyclopedic scrutiny and a pinch of whimsy. . . . an engaging, comprehensive biography. Tapping into a wellspring of sources, the author has managed to reanimate with great skill and dexterity this shrewd, sophisticated woman. A sprawling salute to an awe-inspiring, world-class actor. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A page-turner and a revelation. -- USA Today
Not just the best on Hepburn--it's a book that sets new standards in movie biography. -- The New York Observer
While previous biographers may have added more embroidery to the accepted story of Hepburn's life, Mann pretty much blows everything out of the water. -- San Francisco Chronicle
Mann handles the material with clear-eyed equanimity. . . . A corrective to the hagiography that has often been passed as her personal history. -- The Washington Post
Certain to stand tall as the definitive biography of Hepburn. -- The Sunday Times (London)
A page-turner and a revelation. -- USA Today

Not just the best on Hepburn--it's a book that sets new standards in movie biography. -- The New York Observer

While previous biographers may have added more embroidery to the accepted story of Hepburn's life, Mann pretty much blows everything out of the water. -- San Francisco Chronicle

Mann handles the material with clear-eyed equanimity. . . . A corrective to the hagiography that has often been passed as her personal history. -- The Washington Post

Certain to stand tall as the definitive biography of Hepburn. -- The Sunday Times (London)
Author Bio
Born in Connecticut, William J. Mann is the author of Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood 1910-1969, Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, and Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger.