Katharine the Great : Katharine Graham and Her Washington Post Empire

THE BOOK THEY TRIED TO SUPPRESS … When the first edition of Katharine the Great was published, Katharine Graham had it pulled from the bookstores and pulped. But Deborah Davis sued the publishers for censoring her book, and won. Now this new, updated edition goes beyond Watergate all the way through Contragate, and shows how the Washington Post has changed during the Reagan-Bush years. Although Katharine Graham is surely one of the most powerful women in the world, few people are aware of the extent of her influence. World leaders meet with her; presidents meet with her; anyone moving up in the circles of power in the nation’s capital tries to meet with the owner of the Washington Post – Newsweek communications conglomerate. Katharine the Great is the story of a woman born into wealth and power. Her husband, the brilliant, mercurial Philip Graham, became the publisher of her father’s paper, the Post , while she settled down to home life. But by the 1950s Philip Graham was battling manic depression, and in 1963 he committed suicide. Middle-aged and inexperienced, Katharine Graham took over the newspaper. Together with Ben Bradlee she made the Post successful and powerful, publishing the Pentagon Papers and pursuing the Watergate investigation that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation. After Watergate, the Post – and Kay Graham – became an institution, a fourth branch of government.