At Home With Kate: Growing Up in Katharine Hepburn's Household

by Eileen Considine-Meara

At Home With Kate offers an inside look at Katherine Hepburn’s life and home, from the vantage of Eileen Considine-Meara, daughter of Hepburn’s live-in cook and housekeeper. This extraordinary book reveals the real woman behind the icon, sharing her daily rituals and telling stories of the many famous friends she frequently entertained, including Sidney Poitier, Lauren Bacall, Robert Wagner, and many more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

230 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 2006

Reviews

[Lisa Burger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives you an idea of what Kate Hepburn was really like to include the foods she preferred to eat. She knew what she liked and wanted from life, and she compromised for no one. But she was as generous as she was demanding, leaving those around her wholly devoted to her strong presence.

It was obvious to me that the author was not a professional writer; the book is a series of random vignettes that do not naturally flow one into another or seem to have an order or structure other than how they came to mind as the author was writing. Additionally, the author at times failed to convey humor except in a "you had to be there" kind of manner. In spite of its faults, though, I enjoyed the intimate portrait from someone who knew Kate well, and I may try a couple of the recipes.

[Tim Collingwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the book isn't long, it is full of wonderful anecdotes about Katharine Hepburn. I am looking forward to trying the recipes out.

It didn't come off as gossip to me. It came off as genuine remembrances of people who actually knew her. It's a shame books and articles about Katharine Hepburn these days are just regurgitated myths about her and it seems that people who actually knew her get lost in the shuffle.

The book does offer clarity regarding the nature of her friendship with Laura Harding, and her widow-esque love for Spencer Tracy upon his passing. It's nice to have learned about Katharine Hepburn's genuine friendships with people and who she was beyond the myths fame created around her. It was nice to read from the author's mother's perspective and the author's about encountering Stephen Sondheim, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Quinn, Michael Jackson, and Warren Beatty. It was nice to read how supportive Katharine Hepburn was towards the author's mother, the author, and her family in general. The last chapter I had to read twice because it was so endearing.

Katharine Hepburn is missed on this world. While I am sure she would reiterate about today's gossip about her- "I don't care what you write about me as long as it isn't true." So everything about how Hepburn and Tracy were beards of each other, how Laura Harding and Katharine Hepburn were actually lesbian lovers, and the perpetual pants-wearing equals lesbian homophobic myth that still carries after she passed away is genuinely rebutted by Eileen Considine-Meara in these chapters.

I highly suggest people read this to get the true Hepburn as people who actually knew her would vouch for.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

The anecdotes were mildly to moderately interesting, though clearly told through a third-hand lens, which puts a lot of detail and depth (to the stories) at a distance from both the narrator and the reader. However, they paint a really damning picture of Hepburn who comes off as a cold, selfish, imperious, self-absorbed, egotistical, arrogant, "better-than-thou,' narcissist. I mean, I guess if you have the money and are too good to make your own meals, it's no biggie to demand your housekeeper (who has her own household of several children to manage on top of managing her employer's whims and must have been exhausted day in and day out) - hand peel the grapes for your lunch, right? I read about half of this and gave up because I did not want to spend another second with the Hepburn depicted here - I was too outraged on behalf of her staff and working class folks everywhere.

[Amy Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really sweet little book, less a biography or even memoir, but just a collection of snippets of what it was like to exist in the orbit of one of the world's great icons.

A great addition for anyone who has already done the more extensive auto/biographical work on Katharine Hepburn, because you definitely already have to know a degree about her to get the best out of these brief tales.

Something that it so striking in all of these Hepburn books I've been reading is just how wrenching the final chapters/passages that detail her decline are. For someone so strong and independent to fail like that is heartbreaking, and it gets even more heartbreaking every time I read about it.

[Mary Narkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book about Kate Hepburn with fascinating pictures that tell quite a story!!

[Bridgette · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting look at one of Hollywood's greats. It's an easy read full of little anecdotes that shed light on what Hepburn really was like rather than just a factual biography.

[Kathy Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s easy to be thoughtful and gracious when you have staff on hand to carry it all out. Like giving an overflow of flowers to somebody’s wedding rather than have them go to waste. Not impressed.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very sweet book. If you want depth or more information, read Katherine Hepburn's biography, Me. I read that years ago and liked it a lot so this was a nice postscript. Now, of course, I'm re-reading Me.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully insightful look at the later years of Kate Hepburn's life.

[Marie Considine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful insider's tale of the life behind the celebrity, the real, salt-of-the-earth that was the Great Kate, shared lovingly by the author who had great respect and admiration for Miss Hepburn.

[Christine Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I hoped. I did make the brownie recipe though.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gossip and nonsense.