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For seven decades Katharine Hepburn played a leading role in the popular culture of the twentieth century - reigning as an admired actress, a beloved movie star, and a treasured icon of the modern American woman. She also remained one of the most private of all the public figures of her time. In 1983 - at the age of seventy-five, her career cresting - the four-time Academy Award winner opened the door to biographer A. Scott Berg - then thirty-three - and began a special friendship, one that endured to the end of her illustrious life. From the start, Scott Berg felt that Katharine Hepburn intended his role to be not just that of a friend but also of a chronicler, a confidant who might record for posterity her thoughts and feelings. Over the next twenty years, Kate used their many hours together to reveal all that came to mind, often reflecting on the people and episodes of her past, occasionally on the meaning of life. Here are the stories from those countless intimate conversations, and much more. In addition to recording heretofore untold biographical details of her entire phenomenal career and her famous relationships with such men as Spencer Tracy and Howard Hughes, Kate Remembered also tells the amusing, often emotional story of one of the most touching friendships in her final years. Scott Berg provides his own memories of Katharine Hepburn offstage - quiet dinners in her town house in New York City, winter swims (she swam, he watched) in the Long Island Sound at Fenwick, her home in Connecticut, weekend visits with family members and dear friends...even some unusual appearances by the likes of Michael Jackson and Warren Beatty. Finally, Kate Remembered discusses the legendary actress's moving farewell, during which her mighty personality surrendered at last to her failing body - all the while remaining true to her courageous character. Kate Remembered is a book about love and friendship, family and career, Hollywood and Broadway - all punctuated by unforgettable lessons from an extraordinary life.… (more)
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Hepburn also opened up to Berg about her own life, astonishingly long career and romantic relationships, including, of course, the great love of her life, Spencer Tracy. Berg also provides a picture of Hepburn herself: funny, opinionated, often imperious and sometimes more than a little bit of a bully. But it also the picture of a fiercely independent woman, an artist with the highest of standards when it came to acting and the productions she appeared in, whether in movies or in theater. The book alternates between Berg's accounts of his many conversations and experiences with Hepburn and passages that provide a more standard biography of her life. Because Hepburn was such an intriguing figure and Berg is such a fluid and entertaining writer with an enormous amount of affection for his subject, here, Kate Remembered was for me a rewarding reading experience. I would not call it an authoritative biography of Katharine Hepburn, but then neither does Berg.
What made it interesting was the
While the personal nature of much of the book was appreciated, I had wanted more of a biography of her life and not an account of her friendship with Berg. I really don't have much more to say on the book. No real impression. 6/10
The book was surprisingly moving, too, as it follows Hepburn through her later years up to the time of her death, interrupting the current timeline with stories from her past, almost like a novel. No dry recitation of vital statistics here.