Personal History

by Katharine Graham

book data

1,265 ratings, 4.09 average rating, 255 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		36%
4		41%
3		18%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

February 24th 1998 (first published 1997) by Vintage

binding

Paperback, 642 pages

literary awards

Pulitzer Prize for Biography/AutoBiography (1998)

isbn

0375701044 (isbn13: 9780375701047)

description

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 inse...more

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Best Memoir / Biography / Auto-biography

248 books | 267 voters

Pulitzer Winners: Biographies & Autobiographies

79 books | 16 voters

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,699)

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12/05/07

Mollie rated it:

(review of isbn 1842126202)

Read in August, 2006

I don't always like biographies - they can be very self serving and trite. But I was blown away by this woman. Frankly, I didn't know much about her or her story of taking over the Washington Post upon the death of her husband - a job she really had been preparing for her whole life, if she knew it or not. Katherine Graham is a amazing, strong and wise woman, and she tells her tale in a very honest way, sharing her flaws, her mistakes and her regrets as lessons for the rest of us. She had a ...more

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02/19/08

Kristen rated it:

bookshelves: book-club

Read in January, 2002

Another book club book -- I wouldn't have picked it up to read it on my own, but I'm glad I read (most of) it. It was interesting as a social commentary, though there wasn't much personal emotion in it -- strange for an autobiography.

There was too much name-dropping and detail to make this an enjoyable read. It was also hard to sympathize with her at all when she talked about how hard it was to live with just a maid but not a cook, or how she had only one dress as a child (which sh...more

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11/24/08

Bonnie rated it:

Read in November, 2008

I can’t even remember where I found this book. Was it in the used book section of the Brookline Public Library? Quite possibly. In any case, I was on a bio roll.

This book traces Katherine Graham’s life through many distinct stages: her childhood, her marriage to Phil Graham, her emergence as a powerful woman in a man’s world after her husband’s death, and the international persona she became (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001).

When I began reading, I knew only the sketc...more

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06/12/09

Lesley rated it:

Read in May, 2009

I'm so happy I read this book, and it tied in nicely after reading No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Mrs. Graham was frightfully honest and this is one of the only times that I can say it was truly necessary to the book. I was turned off at first by her description of her grandmother being "the most beautiful woman anyone had ever seen" (or something like that...) because oh, please, hasn't everyone said that about their grandmother in her heyday? And if this is ...more

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04/20/09

Kathy rated it:

Read in May, 2009

This book really held my interest from start to finish. Graham has great self-understanding and perspective on her life, and was very honest about her late husband's mental illness, the things that she both admired and resented about her parents, and her own insecurities as an untrained businesswoman in a world that was still completely dominated by men. As a woman in the business world, I completely identified with her. I especially loved the scene where she had to decide whether or not to p...more

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01/22/09

Chana rated it:

bookshelves: memoirs-and-biographies, political

Read in July, 2008

Don't let the size of this book daunt you; it is both interesting and readable, a very human story. Although I got the idea that perhaps I was only hearing one side of the story sometimes, well how could it be otherwise. I think that Katharine Graham tried to play fair and honest as possible in telling her life story and the story of the Washington Post. She is a very tenacious woman. She took on fights with some very powerful and intelligent people and she never gave up, nor did she lose mo...more

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04/04/09

Coco rated it:

bookshelves: memoir, women

Read in April, 2009

This book was over six hundred pages and I enjoyed them all. While Katharine Graham's autobiography is ostensibly her own history, it's also the history of our country. Beginning with her father, Eugene Meyer, and his close dealings with the Hoover Administration and going all the way through her own birds-eye view of various presidents, including Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and, most fascinating of all, Nixon.

Graham's life was supposed to be much different. Married to Ph...more This book was over six hundred pages and I enjoyed them all. While Katharine Graham's autobiography is ostensibly her own history, it's also the history of our country. Beginning with her father, Eugene Meyer, and his close dealings with the Hoover Administration and going all the way through her own birds-eye view of various presidents, including Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and, most fascinating of all, Nixon.

Graham's life was supposed to be much different. Married to Phil Graham who ran her family's paper, the Washington Post, with four children, she thought she would be mother, wife and hostess. Sadly, Phil's little understood bipolar disease created havoc for the family before causing him to take his own life. She was thrust into the position of taking over the Washington Post.

Vast in scope and yet filled with personal insights (President Kennedy sent a plane to bring Phil back to Washington when he had a public mental breakdown), it's a fascinating look at the way government really works, in the salons and dining rooms of Georgetown. Even though the press often had a tumultuous relationship with many of the administrations, it was interesting that they could all meet for dinner the next evening and behave in a civilized fashion. Until Nixon, that is. Even though most of us know that Watergate was bad, Mrs. Graham's book really made me realize how personal and how vicious Nixon and his White House Guard were. The Post was truly out there, hanging in the wind alone, for quite awhile before other papers joined them and the book takes the reader through a series of gutsy decisions that likely changed the course of our nation.

My greatest disappointment was learning that Kay Graham died in 2001. I wish I could have written her and let her know how much this book taught me and how much her life meant. From a self-doubting woman, who was always the only female in the boardroom, to a confident person, she is a wonderful teacher and role model for all of us. I read that her daughter, author Lally Weymouth, didn't want her to write this book. Perhaps it's because Graham discusses Phil's mental illness, infidelity and suicide. I felt she did it with grace and love, however, but I'm sure it was hard for her daughter. I, for one, however, am grateful she had to courage to do so.(less)

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4 comments

07/23/08

Carol rated it:

Another riveting book which was hard to put down. Katherine Graham is an astonishing person who in spite of her gender training, broke through the glass ceiling everytime she had to. Lovely read.

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11/25/08

Jamie rated it:

A very long read, but well worth the time! I mostly knew of Katherine Graham from Watergate era books. Personal History really illuminates how she rose to meet and conquer the challenges presented to her throughout her life with grace, intelligence, dignity, and ingenuity. No wonder she commanded such respect from so many! She was a true trailblazer. She witnessed and participated in so many events during her lifetime. She also experienced tragedy and failure, yet managed to adapt and rein...more

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03/31/09

Jean rated it:

Read in June, 2009

I was interested in Katharine Graham's memoir because of her unique place in history as the respected owner, president, and chairman of The Washington Post during a time when few women held such positions of responsibility (well, and the book also won the Pulitzer Prize). Little did I know that because of her well-connected parents, her life story would read like a "Who's Who" for the 20th century from the opening chapter. But that's not what makes this a singular story – Graham's ba...more

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10/16/08

Oldesq rated it:

(review of isbn 0394585852)

Read in October, 2008

If for nothing else, I would highly recommend this book for its fascinating account of the battle to publish the Pentagon Papers, a serious attempt by the President at prior restraint of the press. As for the rest of this tome, only Katharine Graham can own horses, travel extensively in Europe, attend exclusive schools and clubs and yet describe her childhood as deprived. What originally seems forthright and shockingly candid usually devolves into a pity party that Graham hosts for herself. S...more

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09/17/08

Amanda rated it:

bookshelves: book-group, non-fiction

Read in October, 2008

This book had incredible potential. It could have easily been one of the most fascinating American autobiographies ever written. Instead, though I plowed my way through the whole thing, it was tepid, vapid, and bordered on dull.
Katherine Graham was born into the Washington elite. She met and socialized with every major political figure during her lifetime. She counted Lyndon Johnson, John and Jackie Kennedy, and Truman Capote among her close personal friends. Her husband, who grew up ...more

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09/01/08

Georgia rated it:

bookshelves: memoir

Read in October, 2008

I finally finished it. This book took me forever and not just because I got busy halfway into the 625 odd pages. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, but anywho...Katharine Graham writes the extensive history of her family and its involvement with the Washington Post. Her father purchases the paper in the 1930s and later her husband, Phil Graham, takes it over. Graham lives in a man's world for sure and points out an infinite number of times how common it was during her young married life t...more I finally finished it. This book took me forever and not just because I got busy halfway into the 625 odd pages. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, but anywho...Katharine Graham writes the extensive history of her family and its involvement with the Washington Post. Her father purchases the paper in the 1930s and later her husband, Phil Graham, takes it over. Graham lives in a man's world for sure and points out an infinite number of times how common it was during her young married life to be subservient to men and that consequently she became a bit of a babbling, uninteresting door stop.

As pressure grows at the Post, Phil becomes increasingly erratic and in fact, is manic-depressive in an era when there was not yet a name for the illness or a good method for treating it. Half-way through the autobiography, Phil commits suicide. One does not want to be cold, but at this point, the book finally got interesting. Graham becomes the reluctant and unexpected leader of the newspaper as it gains more and more acquisitions, including Newsweek. Watergate was a particularly interesting part of the book as Graham explained the tension that inhabited Washington and the Post newsroom.

Graham is at once firm and wavering. She readily admits her many managerial mistakes and yet stands by a lot of her decisions, many of them controversial like getting rid of the pressman union during a 4 month strike in the 70's. She can tend to be repetitive and not as personal as one would like, barely mentioning her children or siblings and only alluding to times when her personal life waxed and waned.
I got a little bogged down in all the names, as someone who was not already acquainted with the important people in Washington during the decades of Graham's reign.

I would definitely recommend the book, especially for history buffs. It offers a singular perspective into the rise of a woman in a man's world, the only woman running a Fortune 500 company (at the time). It also offers a view into the news world as many of the developments have greatly shaped how news is covered today.(less)

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05/29/08

Laine rated it:

Read in May, 2008

This book mostly seems to be an apologia written for her children about the facts of the suicide of their father and her husband, Phil. The rest of it is an apologia for her helm and stewardship of the Washington Post, and her position vis-a-vis feminism.

No doubt her husband suffered, from being afflicted at a time of "poorer" understanding of the vicissitude of mental health. I regret to say this whole arena of life is not much better understood or supported in thi...more
This book mostly seems to be an apologia written for her children about the facts of the suicide of their father and her husband, Phil. The rest of it is an apologia for her helm and stewardship of the Washington Post, and her position vis-a-vis feminism.

No doubt her husband suffered, from being afflicted at a time of "poorer" understanding of the vicissitude of mental health. I regret to say this whole arena of life is not much better understood or supported in this day and age.

The Post did grow fantastically, and make money for its shareholders. Did it fairly represent all sides to the controviersies in politics/life that happened in her time in history? RESOUNDINGLY NO. One tiny afterthought paragraph on Kennedy's Chappaquiddick murder and coverup (she owns a home on Martha's Vineyard) after annihilating Nixon for many paragraphs and chapters? Never mentioning or welcoming for that matter Pat Nixon, et al, while printing numerous photos of she with leading Dems. Detailing her hiring practices (never once considering that if she hired a liberal editor she should find a conservative voice as well) of hiring friends and friends of friends all the while thinking that because there was argument in the editorial room, there was in fact fair representation. There's much more on this ...

Lastly, the feminism thing of a rich girl moving from this sensibility ... "it was exhausting work to decorate our second home with only a little help from a decorator" ... to understanding someone like me, for example, the second child of immigrants who gave up everything and suffered to no end to come to this great country and be able to breathe in freedom? I think not, and in her world, her way of seeing, there is no evidence ofshe supporting the joys and values I hold dear.

I think Katherine Graham tries to portray herself as a gracious, worldy woman with many important friends amongst the figures of the world. It is not her fault she was born to great wealth, but if all her golden opportunities results in the fact that she cannot see the inherent unfairness of her not scathingly attacking Kennedy, when there was loss of a beautiful young life, when his behavior was of a lecherous murderous cad only interested in his personal political future, and her horrific rage at Nixon for bungling up an attempt to accrue political favor in a stupid way, with absolutely no loss of life at all, in the end she reads as just another shallow liberal clinging to her guns and her one point of view.

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02/26/08

Alice rated it:

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in March, 2008

This book was really hard to keep reading for the first two hundred pages or so. It gets better, but I wouldn't say I loved it. Everyone kept telling me it was good, so I kept reading, and I guess I'm not sorry I did. I learned a lot about DC history, and as someone who grew up in the DC Metro area that was sometimes interesting.

Graham is incredibly unsure of herself, especially in the beginning which gets really old. It's nice to see her become slightly more sure of herself. I ...more

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02/13/08

Philip rated it:

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Philip by: Barrett
recommends it for: my friend Nicole, but she already read it.

Admission: I sometimes kiss books. I don't plan on it, and I don't think I'm a straight-up, therapy-needing bibliophile, but.. .sometimes, upon finishing a book into which I've invested an embarassing amount of time and emotional energy, I feel the end nearing, the characters and situations begining to wave goodbye, and I just. . I --oh, I HAVE TO KISS IT!!

Katharine Graham's PERSONAL HISTORY is a kissable book.

This is fact.

What an amazing life she lead, an...more Admission: I sometimes kiss books. I don't plan on it, and I don't think I'm a straight-up, therapy-needing bibliophile, but.. .sometimes, upon finishing a book into which I've invested an embarassing amount of time and emotional energy, I feel the end nearing, the characters and situations begining to wave goodbye, and I just. . I --oh, I HAVE TO KISS IT!!

Katharine Graham's PERSONAL HISTORY is a kissable book.

This is fact.

What an amazing life she lead, and what an incredible voice she uses to recall it. Graham mentions in her Acknowledgments that she hired researchers to help her with the writing of her autobiography. This struck me as odd before reading the book, but as I poured through this woman's life-history, I could feel her joy at finally finding out the other side of certain of her life's stories. Yes it was her Personal History, but one she shared with a nation. Being the head of Washington's top newspaper, breaking news, unions, the glass ceiling, and Presidencies-- riding as well as writing the tides of history. . .well, it must have facinated even her to look back and learn about situations she must have felt belonged only to her. Alas, her history belongs to the Country, as it so tipifies what our country was, is, and should be.

Graham writes at one point to Warren Buffett that he and his wife are: "such singular products of this coutnry--you could only have happened here in all the world. It's what I love about the US of A and the life in general--the surprising, the unique, the individual.
If I have a religion it's this--the Judeo Christian civiliaztion is founded on that sanctity fo the individual. It leads to all sorts of other things--it led for beginners to democracy and to the shape of this kind of democratic society. And it led to some sort of rationale I can live with about the goal of each individual being to fulfill the unique potential within -- and do it to the utmost. This is what you do, Warren--or you are in the process of doing."

She could just as easily have been writing about herself.

Read this book. No seriously, read it.
Then kiss it goodbye.(less)

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4 comments

01/11/08

Tracy rated it:

bookshelves: biography-autobiography

Fascinating look at the wealthy and powerful in Washington DC, as well as Graham's own well-connected family in the Northeast. This is Washington of behind the scenes political bargaining (Kennedy and Johnson campaign), of powerful friends and their social events, and, of course, of Washington Post and Watergate. Graham fleshes out that famous chapter of Post history, as well as the difficulty she had in inheriting her position as publisher after her husband's suicide.

In some ways a ...more

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01/02/08

Sara rated it:

bookshelves: memoir-biography

Read in March, 2007

recommends it for: anyone interested in journalism, Washington politics

As a prominent female working in turbulent times, former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham certainly led a memoir-worthy life. The early chapters of the book deal with her wealthy girlhood and privileged adolescence are frustratingly laden with famous names and personalities, but this becomes more tolerable as the story moves forward.

As Graham comes more into her own in the story, the book also comes more into focus. The book smoothly explores her development into a wife/mothe...more

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11/21/07

Cynthia rated it:

(review of isbn 0394585852)

Read in November, 2007

Bad editing. Well, really no editing. I guess that happens when you have a powerful author. Also, I guess a Puliter Prize also happens when you have a powerful author?! It's 600 repetitive pages of anecdotes about luncheons and weekends with famous people and passive aggressive knocks to everyone who mistreated her (in her mind). She had so much spin on reality she seemed to have lived in another world at times (like being a "pro-union" strikebreaker). For all of that being said...more

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02/17/07

Tom rated it:

(review of isbn 1842126202)

Read in February, 2007

I re-read Katharine Graham's book recently and once again enjoyed it very much. This time I read it as a story of an accidental but capable leader. I also began to think how different dissemination of news has become. Rather than experienced journalists sitting down with politicians acting as a filter and reporting on what was meant, not just what was said, we have undisciplined and total access to every gaffe, misstep and sordid detail which may or may not tell us about the true character or...more

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