Kate Remembered

Table of Contents

 

“Hepburn's observations about everyone from Louis B. Mayer to Howard Hughes and Sean Penn are sharp, funny, and poignant.”

—Maureen Dowd,
The New York Times

 

“Readers of
Kate Remembered
. . . will learn about Katharine Hepburn's meteoric rise, her slumps, her many affairs, her offbeat family, and what she thinks of everyone from Bob Hope to Meryl Streep. Mostly, they will get a chance to experience what the star was like, with an intimacy far greater than any dirt-digging tell-all.”

—
Boston Herald

 

“Touching . . . [an] unusual and unusually fitting account . . . of a life lived outside the usual in virtually all things.”

—
Entertainment Weekly

 

“Hepburn sounds off plenty in Berg's fond recollection of their close twenty-year friendship. The actress comes across as smart, feisty, independent . . . A worthy look at a candid Kate.”

—
People

 

“Kate Remembered
is her last performance, and one of her most touching. That it comes to us from beyond the grave should not be a shock. That's the sort of thing a goddess does.”

—
The Washington Post Book World

 

“Magnificent . . . A peach of a memoir. Berg and Hepburn have a similar chemistry on the page to Tracy and Hepburn on screen.”

—
The Sunday Times
(London)

 

“Intimate, thoughtful, and considerate.
Kate Remembered
is an intensely personal book, and that's a good thing: This is Katharine Hepburn filtered through Scott Berg, and . . . part of the fun of the book is seeing how these two bright, confident personalities interact: The wisecracks fly like spitballs, but beneath it all, Berg and Hepburn are obviously simpatico.”

—
Salon.com

 

“Berg's writing is so intimate that readers may feel they are hiding behind a curtain as they listen to the stories he elicits from his subject.”

—
Booklist
(starred review)

 

“[Hepburn's] legion of fans can spend some happy time with her in . . .
Kate Remembered.
It's a work of love that . . . offers new insights into this kind, prickly, brilliant, brusque, beautiful, one-of-a-kind woman. [A] loving and generous memoir . . . The millions who loved Katharine Hepburn through her movies will love this book.”

—
Richmond Times-Dispatch

 

“A haunting insight into the twilight of fame, with shades of
Sunset Boulevard,
shades of
The Aspern Papers.
Berg is . . . an astute and subtle observer, always willing to take a back seat while greater egos strut their stuff The result is a memoir with never a dull page.”

—
The Daily Telegraph
(London)

 

“By virtue of Berg's access and his powers of observation, you are brought inside the home of Hepburn from the time she is in her mid-seventies. Through the strength of her personality, which shines even in print, you hear her speak her own lines in her own voice, not lines written for her. If you are a Hepburn fan you have to read this book.”

—
The Courier-Journal
(Louisville, KY)

 

“Fans will read
Kate Remembered
. . . and find within its pages a woman very much like the actress's on-screen persona: cranky and charming, tough and thoughtful, independent and in love with those who can keep pace with stiff drinks and stronger conversations.”

—
Dallas Observer

 

“The unorthodox friendship between actress and writer—one of a number of close friendships that sustained Hepburn through her last years—is wonderful to read about, simultaneously relaxing, entertaining, and touching. The book is irresistible, and I see no reason to try to resist it . . . uproarious . . . nostalgic . . . charming . . . gritty.”

—
The Buffalo News

 

“Exhilarating . . .
Kate Remembered
reads like an extended conversation with this remarkable woman . . . An engrossing, three-dimensional account of a contradictory woman who was determined to be a star while keeping the world at bay. Because of Berg's extraordinary access, a reader is bound to feel the thrill of being able to enter Hepburn's private realm.”

—
The New Orleans Times-Picayune

 

“Katharine Hepburn had definite ideas about just about everything, including how to arrange logs in a fire. So reveals memoirist A. Scott Berg, who received these instructions from her: ‘Not too close to each other. Make them fight for the flame.' Revealing words. For, as Berg shows . . . Hepburn had plenty of fire and plenty of fight in her, and she was notoriously careful in not allowing others to get close to the flame. [A] pleasant memoir . . . and it serves as a useful manual for any actor looking to increase his or her odds of survival in the business.”

—
The Hollywood Reporter

 

“A witty, gracefully written book about her life that is part biography, part memoir, and wholly a work of love. [Berg's] familiarity with Hollywood and skill as a writer is evident in
Kate Remembered,
which seamlessly combines his personal reminiscences with fascinating detail about Hepburn's childhood, remarkable career, and final years.”

—
The Hartford Courant

 

“A compulsively readable . . . look at an elusive legend.”

—
Fort Worth Star Telegram

 

“An affectionate, often affecting memoir.”

—
The Philadelphia Inquirer

 

“Rebel, feminist, free thinker, recluse, survivor, great actress. A. Scott Berg attempts to capture all these descriptions of Katharine Hepburn in his mesmerizing account of an extraordinary life. In the end, she comes across as a fascinating figure with standards that guided her all her life . . . As for Berg, he is always in control, resulting in an ultimately satisfying style imbued with sincerity and complete honesty.”

—
Edmonton Journal

 

“A loving memoir of someone who became a friend, a rare thing between biography writers and stars in this age of kiss and tell. It is also remarkably candid.”

—
Birmingham Post
(UK)

 

“Even those who've read many Hepburn biographies will find Berg's immersion in the actor's world engrossing, full of crisply voiced takes on old Hollywood and intimate looks at her everyday life.”

—
Publishers Weekly

BERKLEY BOOKS NEW YORK

A Berkley Book
Published by The Berkley Publishing Group
A division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014

Copyright © 2003 by A. Scott Berg

 

The ten-line excerpt of Phelps Putnam's “The Daughters of the Sun” (as published in
The Collected Poems of H. Phelps Putnam,
edited by Charles R. Walker, 1971) is reprinted with the kind permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

 

The following photographs are used with the kind permission of the
owners indicated below:
Archive Photos: frontispiece and pages 136 and 168: The Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences: pages 8, 216, and 312; Corbis/Bettmann-UPI: pages 26, 68, and 274;
Getty Images: page 108; G. P. Putnam's Sons: page 362; Nick Vaccaro: page xiv.

 

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or
electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of
copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights.
Purchase only authorized editions.

BERKLEY and the “B” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

 

Berg, A. Scott (Andrew Scott)
Kate remembered / A. Scott Berg.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-49734-0

1. Hepburn, Katharine, 1907—2003. 2. Berg, A. Scott (Andrew Scott) 3. Motion picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography. I. Title

PN 2287. H.45 B45

2003 791.43'028'092—dc21

2003545232 [B]

CIP

 

 

KEVIN McCORMICK

O
ver the past thirty years, I have written three biographies. Each of these books is part of a larger plan I have long been devising, a collection of objectively told life stories of great American cultural figures of the twentieth century, each representing a different wedge of the Apple Pie. (Thus far, I have written about a book editor from New England, a motion-picture mogul from Poland, and an aviator from the Midwest.) This book falls outside that plan.

The subject at hand has certainly led a fascinating life and impacted the times in which she lived. She more than merits a full-scale biography. Alas, I am not the one to write such a book because I am, quite frankly, incapable of writing about her objectively. For one thing, I believe—unabashedly and without qualification—that Katharine Hepburn established the greatest acting career of the twentieth century, perhaps ever. And for another, Katharine Hepburn was a close friend of mine for two decades. Quite frankly, I walked into her life adoring her; and over the next twenty years, my admiration for her only swelled.