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  • Book cover of Personal History

    #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PULTIZER PRIZE WINNER • The captivating inside story of the woman who helmed the Washington Post during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of American media: the scandals of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate In this widely acclaimed memoir ("Riveting, moving...a wonderful book" The New York Times Book Review), Katharine Graham tells her story—one that is extraordinary both for the events it encompasses and for the courage, candor, and dignity of its telling. Here is the awkward child who grew up amid material wealth and emotional isolation; the young bride who watched her brilliant, charismatic husband—a confidant to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson—plunge into the mental illness that would culminate in his suicide. And here is the widow who shook off her grief and insecurity to take on a president and a pressman’s union as she entered the profane boys’ club of the newspaper business. As timely now as ever, Personal History is an exemplary record of our history and of the woman who played such a shaping role within them, discovering her own strength and sense of self as she confronted—and mastered—the personal and professional crises of her fascinating life.

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    Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography An extraordinarily frank, honest, and generous book by one of America's most famous and admired women, Personal History is, as its title suggests, a book composed of both personal memoir and history. It is the story of Graham's parents: the multimillionaire father who left private business and government service to buy and restore the down-and-out Washington Post, and the formidable, self-absorbed mother who was more interested in her political and charity work, and her passionate friendships with men like Thomas Mann and Adlai Stevenson, than in her children. It is the story of how The Washington Post struggled to succeed -- a fascinating and instructive business history as told from the inside (the paper has been run by Graham herself, her father, her husband, and now her son). It is the story of Phil Graham -- Kay's brilliant, charismatic husband (he clerked for two Supreme Court justices) -- whose plunge into manic-depression, betrayal, and eventual suicide is movingly and charitably recounted. Best of all, it is the story of Kay Graham herself. She was brought up in a family of great wealth, yet she learned and understood nothing about money. She is half-Jewish, yet -- incredibly -- remained unaware of it for many years.She describes herself as having been naive and awkward, yet intelligent and energetic. She married a man she worshipped, and he fascinated and educated her, and then, in his illness, turned from her and abused her. This destruction of her confidence and happiness is a drama in itself, followed by the even more intense drama of her new life as the head of a great newspaper and a great company, afamous (and even feared) woman in her own right. Hers is a life that came into its own with a vengeance -- a success story on every level. Graham's book is populated with a cast of fascinating characters, from fifty years of presidents (and their wives), to Steichen, Brancusi, Felix Frankfurter, Warren Buffett (her great advisor and protector), Robert McNamara, George Schultz (her regular tennis partner), and, of course, the great names from the Post: Woodward, Bernstein, and Graham's editorpartner, Ben Bradlee. She writes of them, and of the most dramatic moments of her stewardship of the Post (including the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and the pressmen's strike), with acuity, humor, and good judgment. Her book is about learning by doing, about growing and growing up, about Washington, and about a woman liberated by both circumstance and her own great strengths. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

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    Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography An extraordinarily frank, honest, and generous book by one of America's most famous and admired women, Personal History is, as its title suggests, a book composed of both personal memoir and history. It is the story of Graham's parents: the multimillionaire father who left private business and government service to buy and restore the down-and-out Washington Post, and the formidable, self-absorbed mother who was more interested in her political and charity work, and her passionate friendships with men like Thomas Mann and Adlai Stevenson, than in her children. It is the story of how The Washington Post struggled to succeed -- a fascinating and instructive business history as told from the inside (the paper has been run by Graham herself, her father, her husband, and now her son). It is the story of Phil Graham -- Kay's brilliant, charismatic husband (he clerked for two Supreme Court justices) -- whose plunge into manic-depression, betrayal, and eventual suicide is movingly and charitably recounted. Best of all, it is the story of Kay Graham herself. She was brought up in a family of great wealth, yet she learned and understood nothing about money. She is half-Jewish, yet -- incredibly -- remained unaware of it for many years.She describes herself as having been naive and awkward, yet intelligent and energetic. She married a man she worshipped, and he fascinated and educated her, and then, in his illness, turned from her and abused her. This destruction of her confidence and happiness is a drama in itself, followed by the even more intense drama of her new life as the head of a great newspaper and a great company, afamous (and even feared) woman in her own right. Hers is a life that came into its own with a vengeance -- a success story on every level. Graham's book is populated with a cast of fascinating characters, from fifty years of presidents (and their wives), to Steichen, Brancusi, Felix Frankfurter, Warren Buffett (her great advisor and protector), Robert McNamara, George Schultz (her regular tennis partner), and, of course, the great names from the Post: Woodward, Bernstein, and Graham's editorpartner, Ben Bradlee. She writes of them, and of the most dramatic moments of her stewardship of the Post (including the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and the pressmen's strike), with acuity, humor, and good judgment. Her book is about learning by doing, about growing and growing up, about Washington, and about a woman liberated by both circumstance and her own great strengths. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

  • Book cover of Katharine Graham's Washington

    As a fitting epilogue to a life intimately linked to Washington, D.C., Pulitzer Prize winner Katharine Graham, the woman who transformed The Washington Post into a paper of record, left behind this lovingly collected anthology of writings about the city she knew and loved, a moving tribute to the nation’s capital. To Russell Banks, it is a place where “no one is in charge and no one, therefore, can be held responsible for the mess.” To John Dos Passos, it is “essentially a town of lonely people.” Whatever your impressions of Washington, D.C., you will likely find them challenged here. Experience Christmas with the Roosevelts, as seen through the eyes of a White House housekeeper. Learn why David McCullough is happy to declare “I love Washington,” while The Washington Post’s Sally Quinn wonders, “Why Do They Hate Washington?” Glimpse David Brinkley’s depiction of the capital during World War II, then experience Henry Kissinger’s thoughts on “Peace at Last,” post-Vietnam. Written by a who’s who of journalists, historians, First Ladies, politicians, and more, these varied works offer a wonderful overview of Katharine Graham’s beloved city.

  • Book cover of Progress: A Personal Journey in Feminism

    From Katharine Graham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Personal History, a stirring narrative of how the legendary publisher of the Washington Post became a feminist. With an introduction from her granddaughter, Katharine Weymouth, publisher of the Post until 2014. Katharine Graham was the newspaper mogul who piloted the Washington Post through the crises of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate: but first she had to overcome the harsh expectations of a male-dominated industry, and her harshest critic of all—herself. Inheriting ownership of the paper from her father, and assuming its leadership in 1963 after the death of her husband, Philip, Graham found herself the only woman in a man’s world—a world, however, that was beginning to change. From Georgetown suppers to board meetings, from The Second Sex to Gloria Steinem, this is the refreshingly honest account of how the most powerful woman in Washington came into her own. An eBook short.

  • Book cover of The Pentagon Papers

    Drawn from Katharine Graham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Personal History, a dramatic account of how she piloted the Washington Post through the Pentagon Papers and Watergate crises. After inheriting the Post from her father, and assuming its leadership in 1963 after the death of her husband, Graham found herself unexpectedly playing a role in history. Here she recounts the riveting episodes that transformed a shy widow into a newspaper legend, as she defied the government to publish the Pentagon Papers’ secrets about the Vietnam War and then led the way in exposing the Watergate scandal. Graham gives us an intimate behind-the-scenes view of the tense debates and high stakes she and her editors faced, and concludes with a powerful argument for the freedom of the press as a bulwark against abuses of power. An ebook short.

  • Book cover of Historia personal / Personal History

    PREMIO PULITZER DE BIOGRAFÍA AHORA EN LA GRAN PANTALLA En esta aclamada autobiografía y bestseller internacional, Katharine Graham, la mujer que lideró el Washington Post a través de la crisis de los “Papeles del Pentágono” y el escándalo de Watergate, cuenta su historia extraordinaria, tanto por los eventos que abarca como por el coraje, la franqueza y la dignidad de su narración. Nos encontramos con a la niña torpe que creció en medio de la riqueza material y el aislamiento emocional; la joven novia que vio cómo su brillante y carismático esposo, confidente de John F. Kennedy y Lyndon Johnson, caía en la enfermedad mental que culminaría en su suicidio. Pero también encontramos a la viuda que sacudió su dolor e inseguridad para enfrentarse a un presidente y un sindicato de prensa mientras ingresaba cautelosamente en el negocio de los periódicos, en ese entonces liderado por hombres. Incansablemente reveladora, elegantemente escrita, Historia personal es un registro ejemplar de nuestro tiempo y de la mujer que desempeñó un papel ejemplar, descubriendo su propia fuerza y ​​confianza en sí misma al enfrentar y dominar las crisis personales y profesionales de una vida extraordinariamente fascinante. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION The captivating, inside story of the woman who helmed the Washington Post during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of American media. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography In this bestselling and widely acclaimed memoir, Katharine Graham, the woman who piloted the Washington Post through the scandals of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, tells her story—one that is extraordinary both for the events it encompasses and for the courage, candor, and dignity of its telling. Here is the awkward child who grew up amid material wealth and emotional isolation; the young bride who watched her brilliant, charismatic husband—a confidant to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson—plunge into the mental illness that would culminate in his suicide. And here is the widow who shook off her grief and insecurity to take on a president and a pressman’s union as she entered the profane boys’ club of the newspaper business. As timely now as ever, Personal History is an exemplary record of our history and of the woman who played such a shaping role within them, discovering her own strength and sense of self as she confronted—and mastered—the personal and professional crises of her fascinating life.

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  • Book cover of Persoonlijke geschiedenis

    Pulitzer Prize-winnende autobiografie van de grote vrouw achter de Watergate-onthullingen. Katharine Graham was een timide telg uit een roemrucht en steenrijk geslacht. Als kind werd ze aan haar lot overgelaten. Als vrouw maakte ze mee hoe haar briljante man Phil, vertrouweling van onder andere John F. Kennedy, langzaam door depressies werd verzwolgen en ten slotte zelfmoord pleegde. Eenmaal weduwe overwint Graham haar onzekerheid. Van vrouw die etentjes organiseerde transformeerde ze in charismatisch leider van een gezaghebbende krant. Ze overleefde het old boys network van de krantenwereld en slaagde erin The Washington Post tot nieuwe hoogten te brengen.

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