"The difference between this book and many of the other biographies of Katharine Hepburn is that it was written outside of the perview of the subject. As we come to see in this book, the do-it-by-self independent personality that so many people admire is a) constructed by Hepburn herself (and the media) and b) somewhat true regardless. Hepburn worked very hard to create and protect and use her image. One easy example of this is the number of interviews she gave, despite being known to be a media-shy recluse.
Mann decided for his book that he would try to get to the truth about Hepburn's story by following paper trails (for example - a ship she might not have been on because it left a month early) and talking to/reading the papers of friends and family who were enough out of the public eye that they did not self-edit quite as much. He compares differing stories and tries to figure out where stories started and how they changed.
The author also deals with questions about Hepburn's sexuality. He frankly discusses the close relationships with women and men, but does not try to give her a label. Hepburn wouldn't have accepted one. Was she gay? Bisexual? Transgender? It is risky to go back and try to label someone, and Mann avoids this while still illuminating portions of the star's life that other biographers have shied away from. As a reader, I especially appreciated that he presented what he found without sounding gossipy or disrespectful - Hepburn was a complicated person, and therefore, so were the results of this book.
I recommend this book to Hepburn fans, and for people interested in how the media molds information. I was worried that it might "spoil things" for me because I have been such a big fan of Hepburn, the legend, but my only regret with this book is that by getting to know a bit more about her, I am saddened by the loneliness she at times faced." ( )

This is a landmark book, in my opinion. I have never read a more compelling and convincing biography. I think this books was really the culmination and triumph because of the author's other two fantastic books: Wisecracker & Behind the Screen. The latter is a landmark book in and of itself, revealing the prominently queer Hollywood before The Code was instituted. Wisecrack, about silent film star William Haines, continued the scholarly study of this shameful period in Hollywood history. Ms. Hepburn has been written about so much and only a historian who had done the research that Mann did could have begun to discover the true enigmatic mystery of this screen icon. I cannot recommend this author's books enough....including his novels. The only thing I haven't read from this author's oevre is The Biograph Girl. It is in my "too read" stack. ( )

All Hepburn biographies are bad, but this one takes the biscuit because it is a biography with pretensions. All the crowing investigation of which Mann boasts is a deceit, and if he really had all that documentation on hand, regarding to whom I know, he didn’t read it with attention, or only looked for what it interested to him. (no wonder the 90 pages of anotations have dissapeared in the spanish edition)
All that people who he says that he has interviewed, are reduced to three people, the rest are pieces of other biographies (although he despises them all) and all those ghosts that in the text are described as “a friend said” or variations of the same introductory phrase (up to 115 times)
There are other traps like introducing data without confirming them that he repeats over and over again so that it seems that the first time he says it, he has corroborated it (for example the one about her aversion to all physical contact, that introduces it for the first time in page 70 without no type of explanation)
And the one of “we can conclude”, “probably” or “I’ts sure enough”, as well as other many similar phrases, that resound in my ears and that appear up to 69 times (yes, I’ve also counted them)
Most of Hepburn quoting are half-done or decontextualised (For many of theses excesses: http://maguei.blogspot.com/2007/08/lo... [Spanish blog])
and the final chapter remembers me the press reports on Johnny Weissmuller during the 80s, as Tarzan shouting at a residence, shortly before he died. PATHETIC.
The author has the manners of a fascist, in addition to other many things. Reading this biography I’ve understood why Janet Maslin was enchanted with The Da Vinci Code. ( )

Well researched. Much new information about the subject. Together with Leaming's book, which gives much more detail about the Houghton connection (Kate's mother whose family owned Corning glass works), remarkable amount of detail about an enigma.