The Making of the African Queen, Signed by Katharine Hepburn
[Signed by Katharine Hepburn] Hepburn, Katharine. The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind. First Edition, Fourth Printing. 1987. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Signed "Katharine Hepburn" on the half title page.
Hepburn’s title aptly conveys the flavor of this informal and lively memoir. It is clearly written in Hepburn’s voice—no ghostwriter here. Old Hollywood from start to finish, the tale begins in Irene Selznick’s Beverly Hills home with a telephone call from Sam Spiegel, unfolds in the jungles of the Congo with the hard-drinking Bogart and Huston, and concludes back in Los Angeles at the Oscars ceremony in which Bogart wins for Best Actor. Along the way, the hard-drinking, fast-living director John Huston earns a grudging respect from Hepburn. Three and a half decades hence, she concludes his direction was the best she ever received.
“Supposedly we were getting appropriate clothes, etc., for the jungle. Nothing arrived for me but I couldn’t have cared less, as my own wardrobe was much more suitable to the jungle than it has ever been anywhere else. I may look odd walking across Claridge’s lobby but I’m at the height of chic in the jungle.”
--Katharine Hepburn