Young Kate

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Young Kate

Title:

Young Kate

Author:

Andersen, Christopher P.

Personal Author:

Andersen, Christopher P.

Edition:

First edition

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

270 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 22 cm

General Note:

"A Donald Hutter book."

Contents:

St. Patrick's Day, 1951 -- The Houghtons were really something... -- ...And Mother was a Houghton -- Going to live with Uncle Amory -- The longest neck, the tightest collar, the smallest waist -- Family or career? -- "Boy, that's for me!" -- The nurse held me up to the window -- I am Hartford -- Venereal disease was not exactly a polite topic -- I don't think he leaned toward Communism. Mother did... -- Hotheads -- We were told to shut up -- As good as the next person? Better! -- Being a girl was a torment -- Things don't happen unless you make them happen -- A good fairy-tale teller -- I hated to get up in the dark -- It was a terrible blow -- Did it push me further into make believe? -- Mother was always telling us we weren't mistakes -- Danger intoxicates me -- By the skin of my teeth I stayed -- ...Unaware we were the second-rate sex -- A cheesy way to make a living -- Epilogue.

Abstract:

Andersen excavates the lives of Katharine Houghton Hepburn's grandparents (the Houghtons) and parents and Kate's early years up to graduation from Bryn Mawr, with the family always in foreground. This is a book that will win many hearts as it lays bare the divine chemistry of the Hepburn family that coalesced in Kate herself. On the maternal, Houghton side, Kate's great-grandfather and grandfather were businessmen-inventors--founders of the world-famed Coming Glass Works. Her fiery, fierce father became a pioneer urologist and led a vastly unpopular campaign against venereal disease (in a day when a lady's ankle was never seen and no one had genitals). Her mother was an active suffragette and towering warrior for women's fights in every field, not just for the vote, and the Hepburn house often sported the likes of Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, and Sinclair Lewis. Inspires readers with a sense of what--amid every earthquake humanity is heir to--a great family can be.

Personal Subject:

Hepburn, Katharine, 1907-2003. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50038123

Hepburn, Katharine.

Hepburn, Katharine, 1907-2003.

Subject Term:

Motion picture actors and actresses

Genre:

ISBN:

9780805007091

Available:*

Library

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Material Type

Archival Material

Call Number

PN2287.H45

Location

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Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Based on conversations with Katherine Hepburn, this book recounts family days of her youth. Includes sixteen photographs. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author Notes

Christopher Andersen was born on May 26, 1949. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and joined the staff of Time Magazine as a contributing editor in 1969. He was the senior editor of People Magazine from 1974 to 1986. He has also written for numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Life, and Vanity Fair.

He has written over 25 books. His early nonfiction books range from psychology in The Name Game to true crime in The Serpent's Tooth to art collecting in The Best of Everything. He is best known for his biographies including Somewhere in Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve, The Day John Died, Madonna Unauthorized, and These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie. He received the Joan's Legacy Award for excellence in journalism regarding lung cancer in 2008.

In 2016 Andersen's title Game of Crowns: Elizabeth, Camilla, Kate, and the Throne made the New York Time bestseller list.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

School Library Journal Review

YA The eccentric and worthwhile lives of Katherine Hepburn's parents and ancestors are covered in greater detail in this book than the life of the young star. Katherine's mother, Kit Houghton, was a cofounder of both Planned Parenthood and the League of Women Voters. Her father, Dr. Thomas Hepburn, was a pioneer in venereal disease prevention. When readers finally meet young Kate halfway through the book, she is a tomboy, as feisty as her suffragette mother. Her older brother's suicide and the agonies of her first college year are experiences about which young adults will read with empathy. As the book closes, Kate heads to Baltimore for her first professional acting role, and readers have gained a good sense of the forces that shaped her future.Keddy Outlaw, Harris County Public Library, Houston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

Sheer delight as Andersen excavates the lives of Katharine Houghton Hepburn's grandparents (the Houghtons) and parents and Kate's early years up to graduation from Bryn Mawr, with the family always in foreground. This is a book that will win many hearts as it lays bare the divine chemistry of the Hepburn family that coalesced in Kate herself. Andersen began by interviewing Kate's younger sister Marion, ""the keeper of the Hepburn family flame""--who died in 1986. After that, Kate clearly has cooperated with Andersen's research into her Hartford roots, aided by her own age-intensified power of childhood recollection. The Houghton/Hepburn family flame gives off a light of incandescent humanity. On the maternal, Houghton side, Kate's great-grandfather and grandfather were businessmen-inventors-designers of new glassware products, founded the world-famed Coming Glass Works, and built a family dynasty by designing and making the first Edison light bulb and continuing to make bulbs by the billions (Kate and her cousins are joined in a $400,000,000 inheritance). When grandfather's second wife, like his first, came down with cancer and faced a long, painful, fatal illness, he shot himself through the head. Later, Kate's beloved brother Tom, at 15, was discovered by her after he'd hung himself in his bedroom, a second family tragedy that deepened her forever. Her fiery, fierce father became a pioneer urologist and led a vastly unpopular campaign against veneral disease (in a day when a lady's ankle was never seen and no one had genitals). Her mother was an active suffragette and towering warrior for women's fights in every field, not just for the vote, and the Hepburn house often sported the likes of Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, and Sinclair Lewis. It was a family of gadflies. When Kate at last announced that she was going to be an actress, her father (who was driving) stopped the car in a boiling rage, his look saying she was throwing her life away. Leaves you haunted and inspired by the sense of what--amid every earthquake humanity is heir to--a great family can be. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Andersen, a friend and neighbor of actress Katharine Hepburn, recounts an overlooked part of the legend's life, her childhood. Hepburn was raised by two remarkable parents: Dr. Tom Hepburn was in the forefront of the fight against venereal disease, while her mother, Kit Houghton, was a feminist, a suffragette, and a strong advocate of birth control. Andersen describes the impact these two dynamic people had on Katharine and her brother and sisters, all of whom experienced an unusual brand of child raising, which comprised a great deal of love (though not shown physically), stern discipline (including spankings), free discussion of every conceivable subject, nudism, and an emphasis on the importance of bravery. Hepburn rarely cooperates on these sorts of literary ventures, but she has made an exception in this case. Her lively quotes (``Dad thought acting was sort of a cheesy way to make a living'') add a wonderful dimension to an engaging book. To be indexed. IC. 791.43'028 (B) Hepburn, Katharine / Motion-picture actors and actresses-U.S.-Biography [OCLC] 88-8819

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