Customer Reviews

Katharine Hepburn: A Life in Pictures

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The cover photo of Hepburn is gorgeous. Some of the other photos in the book are also terrific including some that haven't been overexposed in other books. However, the foreword by Charles Higham is full of errors that would be laughable if they weren't such an insult to Hepburn, one of the world's most famous women. For example, her birthdate is erroneously listed as 1909 (it was 1907) and he states that she "succumbed to a coma in the 1990's" (Hepburn died in June 2003 at the age of 96.) The information provided between her birth and death is also error-filled.

The photos also suffer from gross mislabelling from beginning to end. Ex: page 14 a photo is labelled - Undated photograph Katharine Hepburn mid-dive. Anyone with a remote knowledge of Hepburn recognizes this as a still from the film "The Philadelphia Story." The photo on page 35 bears the label: 1935 George Cukor and Katharine Hepburn on the set of the film "Sylvia Scarlett," the photo is actually from the set of the film "Mary of Scotland" with Katharine Hepburn and Frederic March being filmed as director John Ford and the rest of his crew watch the action. Page 73 -- the 1942 MGM Commemorative photo -- Lionel Barrymore is mis-identified as Red Skeleton! The photos on pages 90 and 91 are labelled: Undated photographs of Hepburn. Reality: both are stills of Hepburn in costumes from the 1957 film "Desk Set." The errors continue and one of the worst is the labelling of the photo on page 122 which states: 1959 Hepburn converses with a member of the crew on the set of "Suddenly, Last Summer." The referenced photo is actually one of Katharine Hepburn walking with her niece Katharine Houghton outside the sound stage where they were filming the 1967 film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." The sloppy manner in which this book was edited is insulting to the purchaser and the disclaimer on page 190 is not sufficient to cover for it. The disclaimer reads: Every effort was made to ascertain the copyright holder of the photographs reproduced in this book. Any errors were unintended by Editions Verlhac/Chronicle Books and will be corrected in the next printing. This kind of sloppy publishing is inexcusable for a book that retails for $45.00.

I like it, I know there are some mistakes (dates) but the pictures are beautiful, classy and the price..is...exelent!