Graham, Katharine

Katharine Meyer Graham (1917–2001) was the publisher of The Washington Post from 1969 to 1979 and served in a leadership capacity at that newspaper for nearly 30 years, from 1963 to 1991. Her tenure included taking the Washington Post Company public, the Post’s publication of the Pentagon Papers, and coverage of the Watergate break-in and President Richard Nixon’s criminal involvement. In 1998, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her best-selling memoir, Personal History. This entry traces the course of her life from her youth, her subsequent marriage to Philip Graham, through her years at the Post and her retirement; the entry concludes with a brief overview of her memoir and of the 2005 biography of Graham by Robin Gerber.