Kate Remembered - Hardcover

A. Scott Berg

3.97

5,424 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078626005X ISBN 13: 9780786260058

Publisher: Thorndike Press, 2003

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#1 New York Times Bestseller

In 1983 -- at the age of seventy-five, her career cresting -- the four-time Academy Award winner opened her door to biographer A. Scott Bert -- 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 Katherine Hepburn intended his role to be not just that of a friend but also of a chronicler, a confidant who might record for prosperity her thought and feelings. 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.

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Review:

Published a mere 13 days after the death of Katharine Hepburn, Kate Remembered is best appreciated as a valentine of devoted friendship. It's a moving study of mutual trust and admiration between Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer A. Scott Berg and legendary Hollywood icon Hepburn, who'd established an instant rapport in 1983, beginning a 20-year conversation that blossomed into this enchanting "biographical memoir." As a casual but authoritative survey of Hepburn's career, Berg's book offers little new information to anyone who's read previous Hepburn biographies or Me: Stories of My Life, Hepburn's bestselling 1991 memoir. But the duality of Berg's title reinforces his purpose: "More than my remembrances," writes Berg in his author's note, "this book intends to convey hers." As such, Kate Remembered offers a rare, unvarnished portrait of one of the 20th century's most influential women, achieving a personal intimacy while making the reader feel welcomed in Hepburn's private world of privilege.

Although Berg (the acclaimed biographer of legendary editor Max Perkins, producer/mogul Samuel Goldwyn, and aviator Charles Lindbergh) had written all but the final paragraphs by 2001, Hepburn insisted this book remain unpublished until after her death, which came, in quiet dignity at age 96, on June 29, 2003. Given the book's pre-publication secrecy, it's hardly tabloid-worthy, serving instead to correct or clarify details from Hepburn's glory days--especially her long-term affair with Spencer Tracy--while offering choice bits of Hollywood gossip, Hepburn's frequently scathing assessments of other actors, and amusing encounters with such luminaries as Michael Jackson and Warren Beatty (both of whom appear as mock suitors with selfish motivations). It's a brisk read but a substantial one, richly emotional and as dignified as Hepburn herself, whose faults and foibles make her even more appealing than her beloved public persona. --Jeff Shannon

About the Author:

A. Scott Berg is the author of MAX PERKINS: EDITOR OF GENIUS, GOLDWYN: A BIOGRAPHY and LINDBERGH, for which he received the American National Book Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Pulitzer Prize, respectively. He lives in Los Angeles.

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