Katharine Graham
Katharine Graham
Katharine Meyer Grahamwas an American publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Her memoir, Personal History, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth16 June 1917
CountryUnited States of America
cities endlessly few geographic people physical politics tend washington
When it comes to Washington, most people tend to think first of politics. But Washington is also a geographic and physical place. It is, for instance, one of the few cities of the world where you can talk endlessly about trees.
acquired became business except fuller job others partly plate presidents rare taken worked
When in 1969 I became publisher of the 'Washington Post' as well as president of the company, my plate was fuller than ever. I had partly worked myself into the job but not, except for rare occasions, taken hold. I had acquired some sense of business but still relied on others more than most company presidents did.
became bureau joined work
The organization that I joined when I went to work, the trade association called the Bureau of Advertising, became the first of many over the years in which I was the only woman.
bore brunt family force lucky neither newness nor parenthood position turned younger
My position in the family turned out to be a lucky one; I bore neither the brunt of my mother's newness to parenthood nor the force of her middle-aged traumas, as my younger sister, Ruth, did.
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I remember the Washington in which I grew up as a genuine small town. Maybe this is true for everyone, that we all feel that the times in which we grew up were simpler, less complex.
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I love Martha's Vineyard, where I have had a house for thirty years. I have loved visiting countries around the world. But I always come home to Washington.
complaint deadlines desk editorial eight hours mechanical work
I didn't really want deadlines and editorial work. I wanted something mechanical and eight hours a day. So I went to work, thinking it was easy - ha, ha - on the complaint desk at the circulation department.
believed best brings care people prosperity society somehow works
I believed - and believe - that capitalism works best for a freedom-loving society, that it brings more prosperity to more people than any other social-economic system, but that somehow we have to take care of people.
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Being a woman in control of a company - even a small private company, as ours was then - was so singular and surprising in those days that I necessarily stood out. In 1963, and for the first several years of my working life, my situation was certainly unique.
although displease ended might realize time unable whatever
Although at the time I didn't realize what was happening, I was unable to make a decision that might displease those around me. For years, whatever directive I may have issued ended with the phrase, 'If it's all right with you.' If I thought I'd done anything to make someone unhappy, I'd agonize.
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There seems to me nothing very bad about a nation's capital having good intentions - and when the intentions are magnificent, so much the better.
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One of my principal childhood memories is hearing one of the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies waft throughout the house.
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One doesn't soon forget the natural beauty of Washington, although those of us who live here do sometimes take it for granted.
activities seemed undermine
My mother seemed to undermine so much of what I did, subtly belittling my choices and my activities in light of her greater, more important ones.