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Fb2 Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn ePub

by William J. Mann

William J. Mann Arts and Literature English

Fb2 Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn ePub

Category:	Arts and Literature
Subcategory:	Memoris and Biographies
Author:	William J. Mann
ISBN:	0805076255
ISBN13:	978-0805076257
Language:	English
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (October 3, 2006)
Pages:	656
Fb2 eBook:	1580 kb
ePub eBook:	1744 kb
Digital formats:	azw rtf lrf mobi

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William J. Mann is a journalist and the author of Edge of Midnight, Behind the Screen, and Wisecracker. Then in 2007 along comes William J. Mann’s KATE: THE WOMAN WHO WAS HEPBURN, which throws most of that out the window.

William J. He lives in Palm Springs, California. Mann documents a woman who was driven largely by a desire for ever-expanding fame. Hepburn is often regarded as an early feminist, but in truth she never took any active role in expanding women’s rights; she is often regarded as a hard and fast liberal, but-with a few notable exceptions-she never involved herself in political actions, particularly if they might have a negative impact on her career. Mann, Katharine Hepburn’s latest biographer, says Hepburn’s father was still paying her bills . Mann, Katharine Hepburn’s latest biographer, says Hepburn’s father was still paying her bills when this feisty, starchy, no-nonsense American idol was 43. Not that there was anything wrong with this: he used his daughter’s paychecks to cover her expenses. And she may have been much too busy for bookkeeping chores. It’s just that this detail, and the many similar ones Mr. Mann has collected in Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn, goes against the grain of Hepburn’s public image

William J. Mann-a cultural historian and journalist, a sympathetic admirer but no mere fan-has fashioned an intimate . 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.

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According to William J Mann in his comprehensive new biography, that is emblematic of Kate Hepburn

According to William J Mann in his comprehensive new biography, that is emblematic of Kate Hepburn. For a woman who came from such a respectable backgound, Katharine Hepburn had a surprising amount to conceal from the press and public when she became a film star in 1934. Firstly, there was the family. From today's point of view, Hepburn's parents would bring kudos to anybody aspiring to be in the public eye. Mann (born August 7, 1963) is an American novelist, biographer, and Hollywood historian best . Mann (born August 7, 1963) is an American novelist, biographer, and Hollywood historian best known for his studies of Hollywood and the American film industry, especially his 2006 biography of Katharine Hepburn, Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn.

William Mann's story of Katharine Hepburn is certainly that kind of read. Never stiff or boring, he asks the questions that other bios have seemed to tip-toe around. What exactly were Ms Heburn's relationships like and with whom? There are tidbits of Kate's childhood that I found fascinating as well as tales of that old-guard Hollywood machine we know as the "Golden Age". While some might dismiss this book as all about "sex" I certainly didn't find it that way at all.

Published: July 3, 2013. Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn book download. Mann is an outstanding biographer

Published: July 3, 2013. Download Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn. Mann is an outstanding biographer. Mann ;s book, it is difficult not to admire Ms. Mann

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Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn. William J.

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Comments to eBook Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn

Lli

Perhaps that was the intent of this book: to show that the public image of people of note does not always coincide with what they are really like in private. Especially in Hollywood where image is everything.
And so it was with Kate (and others in the book, I might add), a remarkable survivor of five decades as an actress made possible by several makeovers of her public image, and some incredibly good performances on both stage and screen.
Another purpose of the author, I think, was to set the record straight on Kate's gender identity: seems it really was ambiguous, though the evidence is convincing enough she was primarily lesbian. The author professes to be gay in the last sentence of the book in acknowledging his partner, so perhaps has an advantage in being able to write about the gay-lesbian old Hollywood Cukor crowd. He also had access to private correspondence and intimates, including her niece, who were now willing to be more frank about her after her death. And Katherine Houghton implies her Aunt Jimmy/Kate was indeed a boy/girl. As the private Jimmy, she preferred women, and their companionship. As the public Kate, she liked strong, virile men--much like her father. Though her male preferences were not quite what their public images purveyed--a common thread throughout this biography.
Reading some of the negative reviews here, I think some of her fans are caught up with the public Kate, which we all adored. And maybe that's all that should count--at least to us. And of course her performances. Leave the rest of it to her friends and family. Hamill said the same about Sinatra: all that matters are the songs. Bless you, Kate.

Vrion

The lamentable reviews are no surprise to me. I read the first edition when it came out. I have read ALL of the Hepburn biographies, starting with Charles Higham's, which was reportedly the only authorized one in the sense that Hepburn had given certain friends permission to speak with the author. Americans love fairy tales. Just look at their public school history textbooks, which are full of lies and fantasies about their noble missions. Gore Vidal wrote a review of some French literature on the history of "same-sexers," and when the French author approached him to inquire how Vidal thought his book would be received in the US, Vidal replied that it would not be, that it would be totally ignored. Americans simply do not want to acknowledge such things. As such, the biggest complaint of Mann's book is its allegations about Hepburn's sexuality. I think he actually does the very best in proving his assertion. Further, he is the first to actually contextualize Hepburn's penchant for men's clothing - read the biography, and you'll see it. Anne Edwards was the first biographer who wanted to allude to Hepburn's intimate relations with women, but as Hepburn was still alive, they nixed it. Other bios just leave it up to the reader to add two and two. Bottom line, I was convinced before Mann's bio, and I am only more so now because of his thorough research into Hollywood and that purge that swept Hepburn and others out in the mid 1930's that no one talks about - the purge that basically created the Golden Age that gave us the more horrible depictions of femininity and patriarchy that have been handed down to us today. Mann is an historian, and he offers a history of the Hollywood that Hepburn entered and what elements - the Church, mainly - brought it down to the level of Ozzie and Harriet. No. I am smitten with this biography as the best of the bunch of biographies. I just want a Kindle edition to the revised 2007 edition.

JUST DO IT

Finished this book a few days ago and just read the first review and 20+ comments that followed, which mostly came down to people who thought the book was only about Hepburn's and Tracy's (and some other people's) sexuality and found that objectionable, unfounded, even slanderous. Then there were people who strongly disagreed. I loved the book but for other reasons than the carefully researched stuff on the Tracy-Hepburn relationship. Hepburn has been voted the greatest movie star of all time. To become successful in Hollywood in the first place, for anyone, is quite a feat. To do so and then reinvent oneself repeatedly when trends and studio bosses and moviegoers turn against you, that is extraordinary. I had been thinking about Hepburn for a while, pondering this while I thought how few other stars period, and especially female stars, managed careers of anywhere near her longevity and wishing there was a book that would really examine her professional life in great detail. To me this is that book.

I think that to reduce it down to calling her a lesbian or a bisexual (or not) is beside the point. Life is often not that tidy, especially in Hollywood. Miss Hepburn tended her legend carefully, and it would have been inappropriate for anyone to dispute what she said about herself or her own life (her expert management of the press is chronicled beautifully in this book), but now that she is gone, it's fair to use all available sources to go beyond the legend—not to diminish her but to ponder and pay tribute to human complexity, ambition, talent, imagination, the times in which she lived and worked.

Anyway, it was just the book I was looking for. I am sorry it (predictably) ruffles so many feathers, but it is an important work on a huge figure in the history of American culture. As to the equally complex relationship between Miss Hepburn and Tracy, I actually think it's insulting to assume that if it wasn't a sexual relationship that somehow diminishes it—people can have very deep relationships that are not sexual in nature, can't they? Mann never once implies or says that they didn't love each other or that they weren't important in each other's life, he just challenges the story that first Garson Kanin and then Hepburn herself wove. I never felt he condescended to Hepburn, rather that he took into account the nuances and complexities of negotiating a life in Hollywood through decades of moral and political change, some of them rather violent.

Anyway, neither one-note (by a long shot) or hatchet job, I think it's fascinating and admirable. Miss Hepburn might hate it, but I found no malice or condescension in the book. Just a human, a human being (with apologies to Tracey Lord), and quite a human at that.

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