Hepburn memoir to be published

Katharine Hepburn’s death on Sunday triggered news of a huge publishing secret: For the past 20 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer A. Scott Berg has been collaborating with the actress on a memoir that could not be published -- or discussed -- until she died.

The memoir, “Kate Remembered,” will be published by G.P. Putman’s Sons on July 11, the publisher announced this week. The book is “full of sentiments she felt should not be made public until her death,” the company said, and includes a recounting of her final years.

“Kate Remembered” will be different from other books on Hepburn, Berg said in a statement. “I honestly think I’m the only person with whom she used her time to reflect, to analyze. Our conversations were not just my priming her with questions. In fact, it was often the other way around. She’d ask me questions, trying to figure things out -- Why did I think Spencer Tracy drank so much? ... What was the meaning of life?”

Hepburn suggested that he write the book shortly after the two met more than 20 years ago. Berg, who lives in Los Angeles, is the author of “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius” and “Lindbergh.” He wrote the final paragraphs of “Kate Remembered” a few weeks before she died.

-- Renee Tawa