News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING Now Available in Paperback

By: Mar. 25, 2011
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

Drawing on a series of recordings made over many years, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Chandler's I Know Where I'm Going, the most intimate and personal biography ever published of Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn, is now available in paperback from Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.

Introduced by George Cukor, who directed Hepburn in such classic films as Little Women, The Philadelphia Story, and Adam's Rib, Charlotte Chandler first met Hepburn at Cukor's estate, where the star was living in a cottage on the grounds. In numerous conversations in California and New York, Hepburn spoke with remarkable candor, sharing details about both her personal and professional lives.

Hepburn's mother was a suffragette, and her father, a prominent doctor. When Kate was 13, she discovered the body of her adored older brother Tom, an apparent suicide. From then on, Kate assumed her brother's birthday as her own and always considered Tom "the most important man in my life." Hepburn also told Chandler intimate details of her marriage and divorce from Ludlow Ogden Smith, "Luddy," who remained a lifelong friend, and she discussed her affair with Howard Hughes. (Hepburn recalled how they enjoyed diving nude off the wings of his seaplane when they went swimming together.) But Hepburn's warmest recollections were of her 27-year affair with Spencer Tracy.

As she revealed to Chandler, her family was a great influence on Hepburn, and she would eventually retire to the home she grew up in-although it had been rebuilt after it was destroyed in a storm. She was careful to distinguish her personal and professional lives, telling Chandler that she always thought of herself as "Kathy," a childhood name, but regarded the public Katharine Hepburn as "the Creature."

For this warm and personal biography Chandler also interviewed many others who knew and worked with Katharine Hepburn, from Cukor to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Cary Grant, Christopher Reeve, and many more. All of them describe an actress and person who was supremely talented
and confident-who always knew where she was going.

Charlotte Chandler is the author of numerous biographies of film stars and directors, among them Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Crawford, Mae West, Alfred Hitchcock, and Billy Wilder. Chandler's biography of Groucho Marx, Hello, I Must Be Going, was a national bestseller, and her book I, Fellini was selected as a New York Times notable book. Charlotte Chandler lives in New York City and serves on the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.



Comments

To post a comment, you must register and login.



Videos