Amazon.com

In lieu of an unrevealing Famous-People-I-Have-Known autobiography, the owner of the Washington Post has chosen to be remarkably candid about the insecurities prompted by remote parents and a difficult marriage to the charismatic, manic-depressive Phil Graham, who ran the newspaper her father acquired. Katharine's account of her years as subservient daughter and wife is so painful that by the time she finally asserts herself at the Post following Phil's suicide in 1963 (more than halfway through the book), readers will want to cheer. After that, Watergate is practically an anticlimax. ... Read more

Reviews (123)

Thoroughly Engaging and Effective in its Detail
What can one say? The freedom with which the author grants the reader not just a glimpse but a fully engrossing view of her world, is justifiably prize-winning. Madam Graham's troubles and triumphs give the student of the publishing world, of motherhood, wifehood, of power or of politics endless lessons.

I would recommend reading this book along with Janet Langhart Cohen's Book "From Rage to Reason".These two women were both friends and are powerful examples of republican women who rock (to use the venacular popular with youth these days!).

Both of these women give a wondrous example of how to balance a commitment to family and traditional values with leadership and power.

I do hope whomever reads both books gets much out of the experience and finds this review of use.

Katharine The Great
"The thing women must do to rise to power is to redefine their femininity. Once, power was considered a masculine attribute. In fact power has no sex. ", so stated Katharine Graham and who would know better?In 1998, Katharine Graham won the Pulitzer Prize for her autobiography "Personal History". She writes a riveting account of her life, and in particular her life with The Washington Post.

Katharine Graham was born to a wealthy family. Her father H Meyer was a publisher and in 1933 bought The Washington Post. Katharine or Kay as her many friends called her, was brought up to believe that she could do anything. And, as her life shows us, she became one of the most powerful women in the United States. In 1938 after college, Katharine went to work for her father at the Washington Post. She learned the ropes, and completed many jobs and found the way of the newspaper. She met a man who soon became her husband, Philip Graham. Once her children arrived, Katharine stopped working to raise her family, and Philip became the publisher and CEO of the Post.They led a fairly happy life with a family focus but still entertianed a lot with dinner parties and social events. Katharine made sure however her children were brought upwith love and discipline. During this time the Post bought the Washington Times and Newsweek. In 1963, Katharine's beloved husband committed suicide; she found he had hanged himself. Bereft she and the children tried to put their lives together.Someone had to run the paper and Katharine went back to work. She learned the ways of the Washington post by observation and quick study and became it publisher, Chairman of the Board and finally CEO. Katharine Graham ran The Post.

Thus began the days of liberation. The time of the Pentagon Papers and The Watergate. Hard biting, investigative journalism was the theme of The Post. And, it was during this time that "The Post" became one of the most important papers in the United States. Kay became a well known doyenne of the city, she was a very popular figure in Washington and well liked. She was erudite and intelligent, well spoken. She ran the paper as she did her life with dedication and love.Katharine Graham's autobiography is well written and relays many truths and secrets - all is open for everyone to read.Mention the name Katharine Graham today, and she is almost as well known as she was in 2001 when she died after falling and striking her head.Katharine left a legacy for her family and for history. She left nothing to chance. She is a role model and this is a book that all women, actuallly everyone, should read. Highly recommended. prisrob

Katharine Graham's illuminating & candid autobiography
What a story!This is a revealing personal account of Katharine Graham's life.She tells about her childhood as a rich girl without much self-confidence; her marriage to the depressed but brilliant Phil Graham, who ran the Washington Post (her father's newspaper) and later committed suicide; and ultimately her leadership of the Washington Post through Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, Vietnam and an incredibly interesting time in American history.This book intertwines the history of the nation with Graham's own history, and the result is a delight.It is an honest, funny and interesting story, and her spirit and heart shine through in her writing.I learned a lot about an amazing woman while gaining a new perspective on a turbulent time in history.

Great insight and new understanding
Well...after all these reviews, there really nothing for me to critique that haven't been written already. But I'll put in my two cents worth anyway by saying that reading this book did surprised me quite a bit. Katharine Graham wrote an amazingly honest auto-biography which enabled her readers to gained a great insight into her character, her life and her accomplishments with a great deal of understanding and clarity. To be honest, she was not what I expected. Its bit ironic that she actually became her own person only after the suicide of her mentally ill husband. The book also reflects strongly on the newspaper business and how her own presence helped make changes to that industry.

The only real weakness of the book was that it didn't go into much details after the pressmen's strike. The Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton years rolled by pretty much as a blurr. Maybe her life wasn't so interesting any more during those period. Personally, I would find that hard to believed.

Still, a well deserving of a Pulitzer, one of the better autobiographies I have read in recent years.

TOO Abridged.
This abridgement contains two tapes, and runs three hours. The book is 642 pages. You do the math. This version, unfortunately, only skims the surface, and I cannot recommend it. It covers five or six major events in Ms. Graham's life, but leaves you wondering about the details. I would suggest that an abridgement of this length, even read by the author, is probably not the way to experience this story. By the way, her reading style is very flat, and not very involving. She gets emotional once (understandably), while describing the traumatic death of her husband, but by and large her reading adds nothing of value to the audiobook.
I can't comment on the longer audiobook, or the quality of the text version, but I would not recommend this version. ... Read more