Life: Katharine Hepburn 1907-2003 Reviews

This is a book dedicated to the legendary Katharine Hepburn. This (very thin) book was released shortly after her death in 2003. Although I did enjoy the majority of this book, I still couldn't help but notice that it was lacking a lot of stuff that could have made this book perfection. What it lacked was, I believe, not enough on her actual life, Ms Hepburn was not just an actress, she was a strong feminist, and not behind closed doors. I don't remember Katharine just for her films, I remember her for her strong, unique personality and dedication. It's a fact that Katharine is one of the best actors of all time. I know everyone raves over actresses today such as Meryl Streep, who is, without a shadow of a doubt highly overrated. Hepburn was no fan either. Other things that were not included in this book that should have been were the long lasting affair with actor Spencer Tracy which is known to have spanned during 1940-67, although I think it's rather rude to have some magazine writing about personal matters such as a well kept private relationship, I still think it would have been interesting to hear a few things about it that most people already knew, in some ways I know Hepburn would not approve of her personal life being published all over the place just about a month after her death, and truth be told, I'd feel sort of guilty after reading it. Hepburn was a very private person, I respect that.

I also would have liked to have read a bit about Hepburn's childhood, I know the basics, and it seemed something I would have liked to have had some rare information on, but unfortunately, it only mentioned the basics and stuff that you could easily come across on IMDb, Wikipedia, etc. Which was disappointing. The book also included some really nice photographs, which showed some of Hepburn's iconic film roles, some personal photos, such as a photo of her and her family, a couple with fellow actors such as Cary Grant etc. None with Tracy though, not even screenshots of Guess who's coming to dinner or Woman of the year, which was a real shame to me. It did however include some memorable, wise quotes from Ms Hepburn. Her filmography and the last few pages almost left me in tears, almost, but I can't really say that for certain, was a dedication section in which it showed life after Hollywood, Tracy and basically life in some way. I think we all know nothing would stop Katharine from doing anything she wanted except death itself, which indeed was the stop to Katharine Hepburn's life. On one of the last pages it shows a few images of Katharine Hepburn's home in Fenwick, Connecticut after she had died, and said all that was left remaining in the house of Hepburn's belongings. As for the very last page of the book, there was a picture of the great Katharine Hepburn, I could see in the photo that she was the type of person who would not back down to anything and anyone, which she proved while in this world.

Though I may have enjoyed quite a few of the aspects of this book, it still lacked things that really could have been mentioned or featured in the book, and the book was easily far too thin, I even think if you were truly to document fully on Hepburn's life, I think it would give the Bible a run for its money. And of course, like I said, I would have really much preferred a few mentions of Spencer Tracy and Hepburn's childhood. Those were defiantly some of the imperfections of this book.

Katharine Hepburn is someone I would have loved to have met in person, sadly it won't be here and not now, or soon. Maybe another time and of course another place.