Personal History Explained

Personal History is the 1997 autobiography of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. It won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography,^[1] and received widespread critical acclaim for its candour in dealing with her husband's mental illness and the challenges she faced in a male-dominated working environment.

Themes

The main themes of the book include:

• Graham's complex and often difficult relationship with her mother;
• her family's involvement with The Washington Post from 1933 onwards;
• her relationship with her husband Philip Graham;
• Graham and Phil's relationships with John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, especially Johnson's appointment as Kennedy's running-mate;
• Philip's mental illness and eventual suicide;
• Graham's evolution from a housewife to the chairman of a major publishing company;
• her growing awareness of feminist issues;
• the legal battle over the Pentagon Papers;
• The Post’s coverage of Watergate; and
• her relationship to the labor movement, first as an activist, then as a reporter, then with the strikes at the Post, most notably the 1975–1976 pressmen's strike.

References

• Book: Graham, Katharine. Katharine Graham

. Katharine Graham. Personal History. 1997. Knopf. New York. 0-394-58585-2. registration.

External links

• Booknotes interview with Graham on Personal History, February 16, 1997.

Notes and References

1. Web site: The 1998 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Biography . June 12, 2023 . The Pulitzer Prizes.