A Film Star Thanks Her Book Editor

Autograph Letter, Signed, to Her Editor [ALS]

Hepburn, Katharine

Publication: New York: 1986.

Notes: A short handwritten note by the great Academy Award-winning actor to Robert Gottlieb, her neighbor in Manhattan and the editor of her first book.

The note, on Katharine Houghton Hepburn stationery, reads, "XII-18-1986 / Dear Robert / What a really lovely bowl of flowers celebrating a most exciting event in my life—I'm thrilled & thank you for both—Happy & Merry to all your gang—Kate."

The impetus of this thank you note is not clear. Since she is thanking him both for sending flowers and for "a most exciting event," it presumably has something to do with her book, The Making of the African Queen, which Gottlieb edited at the publishing house Knopf. The book came out late in 1987 so perhaps, based on the timing, she was celebrating the completion of the manuscript, which usually happens a year or so before the book is released to the public.

In his memoir, Avid Reader, Gottlieb (a legendary New York editor who bought Joseph Heller's Catch-22) wrote about the editing process for The Making of the African Queen. "The work went easily—I would walk through our common garden and in through the back door to go over new pages with her, usually in her bedroom. She liked to receive in bed."

Edition + Condition: Fine. Hepburn letters to people she actually knew and worked with are relatively uncommon, especially compared to the seemingly endless stacks of notes she wrote declining to sign photographs.

Provenance: From the estate of Robert Gottlieb; proof of provenance will be provided with the letter.

Item No: #364156

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