Description:

Hepburn Katharine

 

Katharine Hepburn ALS: "it is very difficult for people in our business to have any privacy so I suppose we are sort of nutty over the subject"

 

2pp autograph letter inscribed overall by Oscar-winning American actress Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003), and signed by her as "Katharine Hepburn" at the bottom of the second page. Postmarked from Los Angeles, California on September 29, 1958. On cream onion skin paper. Expected paper folds, and isolated discoloration from mounting tabs along the top of both sheets, else near fine. 7.125" x 10.75". Accompanied by an original transmittal envelope, also inscribed in Hepburn's hand. Letter-opened at top, and with minor mounting traces, else near fine. With provenance material relating to a previous auction, in which the original letter recipient's daughter, Emilie de Brigard née Rahman, donated this lot.

 

Katharine Hepburn wrote this note of apology to "Mrs. Lincoln Rahman", her neighbor (or more likely landlady) in Malibu, California. Apparently Mrs. Rahman, whose maiden name was Ruth Emilie Ida Jaeger, had surprised Hepburn earlier that morning with an unscheduled visit.

 

In full, and unchanged:

 

"Sunday afternoon

 

Dear Mrs. Rahman -

I am so sorry about this morning as I have been longing to show you what I've done - but honestly it was just the worst unfortunate moment as I had sworn that there would be no one at all at either my house (your) or the Erskines' -- And it is very difficult for people in our business to have any privacy so I suppose we are sort of nutty over the subject - If only you had called I could have said after one + welcomed you + your brother properly - I am humiliated at having been struck dumb - but I really was completely surprised - Please forgive my ungraciousness - I feel so badly at having embarrassed you before your brother -

Katharine Hepburn".

 

Katharine Hepburn and fellow actor/partner Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) rented a home at 30843 Pacific Coast Highway (now 30838 Broad Beach Road) in Malibu, California during the 1950-60s. The narrow lot had direct beach access, providing glorious views of the Pacific Ocean. In 1963, just five years later, Tracy would famously suffer a heart attack at the site.

 

Over Katharine Hepburn's 66-year-long acting career, she would star in dozens of films, television movies, and stage productions. Named the leading female actress of Hollywood Classic Cinema by the American Film Institute, Hepburn also won four Academy Awards (1934's Morning Glory, 1968's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 1969's The Lion in Winter, and 1982's On Golden Pond) and racked up eight further Oscar nominations. Hepburn was as comfortable in serious theatrical dramas as she was in screwball comedies or period pieces. Just one year earlier, in 1957, Hepburn had been nominated for her performance in The Rainmaker, co-starring Burt Lancaster.

 

Mrs. Rahman's husband A. Lincoln Rahman (1904-1956), was a prestigious Los Angeles-based psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, killed in a car accident two years previously. The couple had married in 1940; daughter Emilie de Brigard was born in 1943. De Brigard is a UCLA- and Harvard-educated anthropologist who lives in southern Connecticut.

 

Provenance

 

Comes with an excerpt from an auction catalog. In part: "Never Before Seen Letter by Katharine Hepburn. Take a peek into the private life of movie star Katharine Hepburn. This vintage correspondence, handwritten by Ms. Hepburn, is a two-page letter of apology to the donor's mother…"

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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