Katharine Graham (1917–2001)

Katherine Graham's Personal History is long, as she began with the story of her parents' background and marriage, and she dwelt long and deep on her husband, Philip. It is almost a memoir of Philip too, who came across as brilliant but tormented (from manic depression). Besides insights into the publishing world, you also get insights into politics, given both Philip's and Katherine's ties to the various Presidents. It is interesting to learn that the press in the U.S. can come under show more government pressure and be ostracised. But what I like best is Katherine Graham's honesty about her inadequacies as a leader, and initial fears of being in the public limelight (like having to speak up and do public speaking). She doesn't really offer advice on how she overcame those. She just buckled down and did it. That's something to learn too. show less

I was reluctant to read this memoir for a while - it's length intimidated me and I'll admit I anticipated a rather dry, long read. I couldn't have been more wrong - Katharine Graham narrates her own life like few others, providing a rich, compelling witness to history. The daughter of a millionaire investor who bought the Washington Post during the Great Depression, Katharine Graham was a wife and mother while her husband managed the family newspaper. Only after her husband's illness and show more death did she step up, somewhat reluctantly, to the helm of the Washington Post. A woman in what was a man's world, Graham held her own, and guided the storied newspaper through the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, two singular political scandals that built the Post's reputation as a national newspaper. A wonderful book to read that provides both a record of the author's life and a compelling argument for the importance of journalism. show less

I read it mostly because of my morbid fascination with the more miserable aspects of the 1970s, like Watergate, but it’s a very engaging book beginning to end. (To cover some of the same ground I also recommend Ben Bradlee’s A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures (1995).)

So you might think that the most interesting bits would be about the inheriting the Washington Post upon her husband’s suicide, or the Pentagon Papers, or Watergate. But no, the best part was about her show more knock-down, drag-out labor fight with the craft trade unions that were strangling her paper.

“Knock-down, drag-out fight” is not hyperbole. They were negotiating with the press operators up to the day the contract was set to expire at midnight. Negotiators gave each other assurances that so long as the parties continued to negotiate in good faith, they’d continue working and paying status quo. Management was nervous, so they stayed in their offices until after midnight and just keep an eye on things for a while. Everything with the print run for the next morning’s paper was proceeding normally, so at about 2:00 a.m. management went home. At about 4:00 a.m., the pressmen destroyed three presses, set fires, flooded the building, beat the shop foreman nearly to death, and went on strike.

Fourteen of the saboteurs were criminally convicted. The union’s precondition for negotiation was that all fourteen be re-hired with the rest. Graham refused and broke them. She reached deals with all of the other craft unions, but to this day the paper’s presses are run by non-union pressmen. The pressmen’s union was uniformly white, and most of the replacement workers hired were black. show less

Even though I categorized this as an autobiography it is not a traditional "my life" story. Instead, it is Katharine Graham's personal history with The Washington Post first and foremost. She begins with a brief overview of how her parents met, when and where she was born, and her college years. This sets the stage for her increased involvement with the paper. From the time she was 16 years old, when her father bought the failing Washington Post at auction, until the end of her role as show more chairman of the board in 1991, 58 years of Graham's life was immersed in making the paper a success. Raised without a strong mother-figure or adolescent role models Katharine Graham was a trendsetter for women in business. For her era, her rise to power was nothing short of remarkable. But, in addition what makes Personal History such a fascinating read is Graham's unflinching view of her world. She does not hide the fact she had a strained and difficult relationship with her absentee mother. Her voice drips with contempt when she recounts her mother's failed attempts at guidance in life. Graham addresses her husband's mental illness and subsequent suicide in a matter of fact manner. She does not sugar coat the difficulties she faced being a woman of influence in a world traditionally reserved for the man of the house. Despite being born into privilege Graham exemplified the meaning of hard work and perseverance. show less