Personal History

I recently finished reading Personal History, the Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography by Katherine Graham, our book club selection for this month. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I previously had no idea who this woman was since she was apparently number 17 on some worlds-most-influential-people list at one point. She died in 2001. Her father (Eugene Meyer) was first-generation filthy rich, making his oodles of money relatively young on Wall Street. He then turned to public service and served in all sorts of significant positions like running the Federal Reserve and World Bank before buying the then-struggling, insignificant Washington Post. He ran the paper and associated corporation, then turned it over to Katherine's husband Phil Graham who ran it until his suicide, at which point Katherine took over, and her son Don Graham now runs it. It is a very interesting book; a few thoughts it has spurred:

• Everyone has their own problems. Even if, like Katherine, you're born to ultra-rich parents and are smart and healthy and generous and marry a spontaneous, fun-loving, brilliant man, you never know but he'll slowly but surely belittle you and whittle down your self-confidence, and in twenty years his manic-depression, after years of heartache, will finally result in you finding his dead body. Don't wish for someone else's lot in life; it is surely better in some ways, and worse in others, than your own.
• You never know what you're capable of until you're put to the test. Katherine, although well-educated and connected, after decades mostly spent raising her children found herself suddenly running a Fortune 500 company. Yikes. But she did it, and under her watch the company went from revenues of $10 million to just under $200 million.
• Get good friends. One of her best friends turned out to be Warren Buffet, who really really helped her compensate for her lack of training and experience.
• Labor unions can be a horrendous pain for management to deal with. Katherine had the unenviable task of dealing with the pressmen's strike at her paper, which began with the pressmen union members vandalizing the presses and beating people up as they walked out and continually rejecting outright any gesture on management's part. It resulted in her essentially busting the union, making her an eternal villain to pro-labor groups despite her extremely liberal leanings and family background. What a headache.
• Sometimes you have to follow the truth and let things fall where they may. Witness Watergate. The Post was really the only paper following the story for a long time, uncovering the layer upon layer of coverups and payoffs and paranoia, all leading to the White House. Nixon and the Post were essentially in a sprint for the finish line, Nixon trying to discredit and annihilate the Post before they got to him first. It took a few lucky breaks for the Post to win that race, but clearly they did. Nixon definitely does not come off well in this book.
• There is a very significant inner circle of power players in Washington, and Katherine was one of them. The Grahams were very close to the Kennedys, and played a large part in grooming Johnson for the presidency. Katherine was constantly lunching and dining with presidents and VIPs. Many of the names she drops in the book I didn't even recognize, but the ones I did were impressive.
• Anti-semetism was alive and well in the US through the 1940s. Her father was Jewish, and the family was snubbed in all sorts of offensive ways. I had no idea.
• I'm glad I'm not running a Fortune 500 company. Towards the end, Katherine explains that she didn't remarry essentially because she was married to her job, and that's what it took to fulfill her responsibilities. She doesn't regret it, and she loved what she was doing. But just reading about the constant stress of so much responsibility made me tired. It would be fun at times, to be sure, but to go for years on end with no letup just isn't how I want to spend my life.

Anyway, it's an interesting (and very very long) book. Some peoples lives turn out to be good, compelling stories, and hers is one of them.