A Lean Life

British director David Lean--notoriously reticent--has finally cooperated on a book about his life and films (the two-time Oscar winner is now 80). Titled simply “David Lean,” it’s due out in October.

Author Stephen M. Silverman not only got Lean to participate--the oversize hard-cover book even includes Lean’s baby pictures--but also reached dozens of Lean colleagues. Katharine Hepburn, who delivered one of her most famous performances in Lean’s 1955 pic “Summertime,” wrote the intro and provided personal photos.

Silverman saw Lean’s 1962 epic, “Lawrence of Arabia,” at age 11, “and my life changed--no movie since has lived up to that experience.”

The former film columnist for the New York Post proposed the book to Lean over dinner one night in London. “When he said, ‘fine,’ my jaw dropped,” Silverman told us. “I almost said, ‘My God, have you ever seen the New York Post?’ I immediately promised him that it would be impeccably done, a labor of love.

“And he said, ‘Well, don’t labor too much.’ ”