The Contract for Hepburn's Autobiography: an Archive
Typed Contract Signed ("Katharine Hepburn") between Hepburn and Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., for the terms of publishing the Knopf and Ballantine printings of her autobiography, ME: STORIES OF MY LIFE. With an archive of associated materials, including memoranda, letters of agreement, amendments, royalty statements, copies of contracts between Knopf and foreign publishers, press clippings, etc.
Hepburn, Katharine.
New York: June 18, 1990.
Price:
$7,500.00
About the item
4 pp. (Contract) + 7 pp. of Riders to the contract, initialled by Hepburn + an attached 2 pp. Letter of Agreement between Knopf and Hepburn regarding further inducements to an agreement. 1 vols. Folio. Very good. Red morocco slipcase and cloth chemise. Provenance: from the estate of Hepburn's agent, Freya Manston.
Item #374731
The autobiography of Katharine Houghton Hepburn (Knopf, Ballantine 1991), America's best-known actress, whose professional career spanned over 5 decades in an era when most women's acting careers are over after the age of 35, promised from the very outset to be best seller - which indeed it was. The negotiations with Knopf over the terms of their contract (handled by Freya Manston) were complex, and were revised several times, but when the deal was done the rumor in the publishing world was that Hepburn's contract set a new record. The evidence is to be found in this archive. Certainly one of the more revealing items, however, is a characteristic letter from Hepburn to her agent, offering to revise the contract in a way which would allow Manston to collect her commission immediately - which was to be based on a percentage of the advance. As Hepburn wanted to forego the advance, an adjustment needed to be made in the contract to accommodate her agent - one that Hepburn insisted on.
An important and revealing archive.
