Katharine Graham (1917–2001)
Auteur van Persoonlijke geschiedenis
Over de Auteur
Katharine Graham, June 16, 1917 - July 17, 2001 Newspaper publisher Katherine Graham was born into a wealthy and powerful family. In 1933, her father bought the Washington Post. After Graham finished college, she went to work at the Post. It was there that she met her future husband, lawyer Phil toon meer Graham. In 1945, Graham's father chose Phil to take over the struggling Post and Katherine stayed at home as a wife and mother of four. Phil suffered from manic depression and after a deep depression he committed suicide. At the age of forty-six, she was thrust into the job of newspaper publisher. In 1971, Graham ordered the Post to print a copy of the Pentagon Papers, top-secret documents that revealed the truth about the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Even though she was friendly with Henry Kissinger and well aware of the battle that would be launched from the Nixon administration, Graham broke the most important political story of modern day, Watergate. The Post continued coverage of the Watergate cover up and the Nixon administration grew increasingly angry. The Post was nearly crippled by their failure to renew crucial television licenses and stock plummeted. Graham managed to keep control over the chaos and the paper became internationally renowned and she has been hailed as the most powerful woman in America. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder
Fotografie: Courtesy of the Pulitzer Prizes.
Werken van Katharine Graham
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Gangbare naam
- Graham, Katharine
- Officiële naam
- Graham, Katharine Meyer
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- Meyer, Katharine (birth)
- Geboortedatum
- 1917-06-16
- Overlijdensdatum
- 2001-07-17
- Graflocatie
- Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
- Geslacht
- female
- Nationaliteit
- USA
- Geboorteplaats
- New York, New York, USA
- Plaats van overlijden
- Boise, Idaho, USA
- Oorzaak van overlijden
- complications from a fall
- Woonplaatsen
- Mount Kisco, New York, USA
Washington, D.C., USA - Opleiding
- University of Chicago (BA|1938)
Vassar College - Beroepen
- publisher
memoirist - Relaties
- Weymouth, Lally (daughter)
Graham, Phil (husband) - Organisaties
- The Washington Post
- Prijzen en onderscheidingen
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (2002)
Pulitzer Prize (1998)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988) - Korte biografie
- Katharine Meyer's father bought the Washington Post in 1933. She lived a privileged though lonely life as a child and in 1940 married lawyer Philip Graham. He became publisher of the Washington Post until his mental illness and death in 1963. At that point, Katherine Graham stepped in to lead the paper and headed it for more than 20 years. She oversaw its most famous period, the Watergate scandal that brought down the Nixon Administration, and the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
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Picked this up on a recco by Warren Buffett. What a fantastic life this woman, Katherine Graham, has had. A very moving and a honest biography.
Katharine Graham’s Personal History is an extraordinary autobiography that won the Pulitzer Prize. It spanned the ownership of the Washington Post as a family business. Started with Eugene Myer, the Post was inherited by Phil Graham - his son-in-law, passed on to Kay, Myer’s daughter, and ended up in the hands of Don, Myer’s grandson.
Eugene laid the foundation of the Post. Throughout his leadership as publisher, the paper was competing with four other newspapers in Washington DC. His venture was losing money, but as publisher he held on to it, and set its editorial standards. Eventually, he transferred its reigns to Phil – a Harvard graduate who had just wrapped up his service in the military. He became the publisher, and with Kay they controlled most of the shares.
During this period Phil made acquisitions that included Newsweek, WTOP-TV in Washington DC, and WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida. He became active politically, and was responsible for Lyndon B. Johnson becoming vice president to John F. Kennedy. Phil was also a member of numerous boards, and was nominated chairman of COMSAT. His work load was phenomenal, and he broke down under pressure suffering from manic depression. As Phil was recuperating from this illness, he committed suicide at their country home Glen Welby.
The Post therefore fell into the hands of Kay who later became its president and publisher. In her memoir she expressed self-doubt in her ability about running the Washington Post Company. But as the years passed, she grew in confidence. The Post chief competitor was the Star, but there were other major problems she had to grapple with. She made an outstanding pick in Ben Bradley as editor. She confronted the difficulties incurred with the Pentagon Papers, steered the Post through the Water Gate years, witnessed the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon, and dealt with the debilitating pressmen strike - all the time wondering if the company would fold.
In the 1970’s her son Don was at the reigns of the Post. By then it had become public. The Post was making money and its rival the Star was no longer publishing. However, Don’s tenure was marred by the Janet Cooke’s incident who had won the Pulitzer Prize. The only problem was that her story about drugs and a child was false. The Post had to return this prize and Cooke was fired.… (meer)
Eugene laid the foundation of the Post. Throughout his leadership as publisher, the paper was competing with four other newspapers in Washington DC. His venture was losing money, but as publisher he held on to it, and set its editorial standards. Eventually, he transferred its reigns to Phil – a Harvard graduate who had just wrapped up his service in the military. He became the publisher, and with Kay they controlled most of the shares.
During this period Phil made acquisitions that included Newsweek, WTOP-TV in Washington DC, and WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida. He became active politically, and was responsible for Lyndon B. Johnson becoming vice president to John F. Kennedy. Phil was also a member of numerous boards, and was nominated chairman of COMSAT. His work load was phenomenal, and he broke down under pressure suffering from manic depression. As Phil was recuperating from this illness, he committed suicide at their country home Glen Welby.
The Post therefore fell into the hands of Kay who later became its president and publisher. In her memoir she expressed self-doubt in her ability about running the Washington Post Company. But as the years passed, she grew in confidence. The Post chief competitor was the Star, but there were other major problems she had to grapple with. She made an outstanding pick in Ben Bradley as editor. She confronted the difficulties incurred with the Pentagon Papers, steered the Post through the Water Gate years, witnessed the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon, and dealt with the debilitating pressmen strike - all the time wondering if the company would fold.
In the 1970’s her son Don was at the reigns of the Post. By then it had become public. The Post was making money and its rival the Star was no longer publishing. However, Don’s tenure was marred by the Janet Cooke’s incident who had won the Pulitzer Prize. The only problem was that her story about drugs and a child was false. The Post had to return this prize and Cooke was fired.… (meer)
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This book was recommended by Ryan Holiday (it's one of the few books written by women he recommends), and after reading What Makes Sammy Run and loving it, I chose this book as the next one for my Read To Lead project.
It's hard to do justice to this book by rating it with 1-5 stars. Some chapters were very interesting, especially those on transitioning from a housewife/hostess to CEO, investing, Warren Buffet, leading a large corporation without the right experience, friendship, relating to your parents and children, feminism and women in the workforce and the union strikes in the 70s. Other chapters (the majority), especially those that consisted mainly of names of Katharine Graham's political acquaintances, were less interesting or downright boring -- I'm not American, and most of the names, titles and White House functions meant nothing to me. YMMV.… (meer)