(no subject)
Katherine Graham
I have a confession to make. I have been fascinated by the Phil and Kay Graham story for years, ever since I read David Halberstam's book The Powers That Be. Katherine Meyer was an insecure girl lacking in self-confidence and growing up in the shadow of two very dominant parents. She had no idea that her father was Jewish - it was the great family secret that her mother never allowed to be discussed - so when anti-semetic remarks were made to Kay by schoolmates, Kay had no idea why. Kay meets and marries Phil Graham, a brilliant attorney from poor roots who was on the Harvard Law Review and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. And Kay in her insecurity is amazed that such a smart guy would deign to notice her, let alone marry her. Phil is the son that Kay's father always wanted, and so he leaves Phil - not Kay - his newspaper, the Washington Post, and Kay at the time thinks this is perfectly natural. Shy Kay stays at home raising children. Phil sets out to make the Washington Post his platform for promoting his Democratic friends. When Phil falls victim to mental illness, takes up with another woman and threatens to divorce Kay, Kay sees that she is going to lose her Adonis husband and her family legacy, the Post, and she doesn't know what to do. Kay is up until this point a victim. A woman totally dependent on men with no self-worth.
Then Phil - this charismatic man, this genius - commits suicide. Thus, begins the next stage of Kay's life, when she becomes the trepiditious head of the Washington Post. She takes on the reigns with the intention that it will only be just until her son is old enough to take over. And in this role, Kay blossoms. It is an arduous journey, but she eventually makes the Post into a national paper responsible for historic journalism and one of the first newspaper companies to go public.
The fall from grace of Phil is fascinating. The rise of Kay is a remarkable journey. At the end, I think even she was amazed and angry about her earlier submissiveness. The fact that every television station in our nation's capital considered it necessary to televise her funeral live - the funeral of a newspaper publisher - unprecedented.
I have a confession to make. I have been fascinated by the Phil and Kay Graham story for years, ever since I read David Halberstam's book The Powers That Be. Katherine Meyer was an insecure girl lacking in self-confidence and growing up in the shadow of two very dominant parents. She had no idea that her father was Jewish - it was the great family secret that her mother never allowed to be discussed - so when anti-semetic remarks were made to Kay by schoolmates, Kay had no idea why. Kay meets and marries Phil Graham, a brilliant attorney from poor roots who was on the Harvard Law Review and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. And Kay in her insecurity is amazed that such a smart guy would deign to notice her, let alone marry her. Phil is the son that Kay's father always wanted, and so he leaves Phil - not Kay - his newspaper, the Washington Post, and Kay at the time thinks this is perfectly natural. Shy Kay stays at home raising children. Phil sets out to make the Washington Post his platform for promoting his Democratic friends. When Phil falls victim to mental illness, takes up with another woman and threatens to divorce Kay, Kay sees that she is going to lose her Adonis husband and her family legacy, the Post, and she doesn't know what to do. Kay is up until this point a victim. A woman totally dependent on men with no self-worth.
Then Phil - this charismatic man, this genius - commits suicide. Thus, begins the next stage of Kay's life, when she becomes the trepiditious head of the Washington Post. She takes on the reigns with the intention that it will only be just until her son is old enough to take over. And in this role, Kay blossoms. It is an arduous journey, but she eventually makes the Post into a national paper responsible for historic journalism and one of the first newspaper companies to go public.
The fall from grace of Phil is fascinating. The rise of Kay is a remarkable journey. At the end, I think even she was amazed and angry about her earlier submissiveness. The fact that every television station in our nation's capital considered it necessary to televise her funeral live - the funeral of a newspaper publisher - unprecedented.