The Original

Katharine Hepburn was a legend. This is the novel of how she became one. After the devastating loss of her beloved brother, young Katharine Hepburn makes two vows: she will become famous, and she will never let anyone hurt her again. Leaving behind her East Coast marriage and icy patrician family, she arrives in 1930s Hollywood - accompanied by her lover and determined to live on her own terms. But the studio system has rules. And Kate - brilliant, bisexual, and fiercely independent - refuses to follow them. Drawn into a glittering circle that includes the powerful David and Irene Selznick, the dazzling Cary Grant, ambitious director John Ford, and the millionaire tycoon Howard Hughes, she moves through a world of sex, ambition, and betrayal. As her star ascends, Kate faces an impossible choice: become the star Hollywood demands, or risk everything to become the woman she always was. Blending meticulous research with incandescent imagination, Priya Parmar delivers a bold, emotionally charged portrait of an icon who shattered convention and refused to be anything but original.