Katharine Graham inherited the Post from two men．Her father，Eugene Meyer， who was descended from a distinguished Alsatian Jewish family，became a wealthy financier and then a valued government official under five Presidents．He bought the Post for a song at auction①in 1933；in 1946，after he was appointed the first head of the World Bank， then he turned it over to his thirty-year-old son-in-law，Philip L．Graham，a brilliant， restless lawyer who had clerked for Felix Frankfurter．Philip Graham，worn out by manic depression，committed suicide in 1963，and his widow，at forty-six，began the steady transformation of the Post from a mediocre paper into a GREat one and of“Mrs．Graham from a wife of appellation①into a queenly title．
The climax of Mrs．Graham's journey—and the Post's and American journalism's—came in the early nineteen seventies．The Pentagon Papers was initially the Times' scoop；but the Post，playing catchup，may have run the GREater risk． Watergate，of course，belonged to the Post from beginning to end，and the Post belonged to Mrs．Graham． The courage she summoned in the face of serious，and at the time frightening，abuses of power put democracy in her debt in a way that few other American publishers， perhaps none，have ever equaled．
Mrs．Graham was criticized， not always unfairly，for her relentless socializing with powerful people the Post covered．But under her stewardship the paper moved away from the manipulative②cronyism③that had marked itunder her husband and toward the fulfillment of its slogan，“An Independent Newspaper”．Her sex protected her even as it hampered her，tempering her instinctive respect for the proprieties with a skepticism about the received hierarchies．In 1970，when forty-six women at Newsweek filed a sex-discrimination suit，she asked her male executives，“Which side am I supposed to be on？They assumed she was joking， but she wasn't．She was afeminist in spite of herself．
Mrs．Graham suffered head injuriesin a fall while she was attending a business conference in Sun Valley，Idaho．She died July 17，2001，three days later without regaining consciousness．She was eighty-four．Some of the many tributes to her have had a faintly condescending①edge，as if she had somehow overcome the disadvantages of wealth， education，and family to make something of herself．This is partly the result of her own frankness，to her friends and in her book， about the feelings of inadequacy②with which she struggled：But，as the story she tells in“Personal History”also makes clear， the strengths the world saw in her during the second half of her life—intelligence，independence，determination，moral courage—had been there all along．
凯瑟琳·格雷厄姆从两个男人的手中接管了《华盛顿邮报》。一位是她的父亲尤金·梅尔，一位显赫的阿尔萨斯犹太人家族的后裔。在五位总统任期内他成为了一名富有的金融家和高级政府官员。1933年，在一次拍卖中，他以低价购得了《邮报》。1946年，在他被任命为第一任世界银行总裁后他将该报转交给了他三十岁的女婿菲利浦·L格雷厄姆。菲利浦是一名出色的精力充沛的律师，他当时是菲利克斯·弗兰克富特的雇员。1963年，饱受狂郁症折磨的菲利浦·格雷厄姆用自杀的方式结束了自己的生命。他的遗孀，当时
已经46岁的凯瑟琳·格雷厄姆就此接管了《邮报》并开始了对它的改革，使其逐步从平庸走向辉煌。“格雷厄姆夫人”也从对一个已婚女士的普通称呼变成了一个女王般的高贵头衔。
二十世纪七十年代初，格雷厄姆夫人迎来了她事业的颠峰，这同时也是《邮报》和美国新闻业的辉煌时期。在此之前，只有《纽约时报》才敢对五角大楼的内部消息进行报道。但是，后来居上的《华盛顿邮报》比它更会冒险。谁都知道，是《华盛顿邮报》披露了水门事件的始末，而这家报纸的主人正是格雷厄姆夫人。在那个权利滥用的非常时期，她所体现出来的民主精神和勇气是其他美国出版商们无法相比的。
格雷厄姆夫人也曾因为与《邮报》所报道的一些强权人物的频繁往来而受到批评，这些言论也不完全是空穴来风。在她丈夫掌管《邮报》的那个时期，这份报纸带有一定的倾向性；在格雷厄姆夫人的积极倡
导下，《邮报》逐渐转变成一份中立刊物。她的性别给她的工作带来了阻力，但同时也保护了她，使她能够凭直觉对事物做出独立的判断，而不是盲目地相信权威。1970年，《新闻周刊》的46名女性职员因性别歧视提出起诉，她问她的男性执行官们，“我应该站在哪一边？”别人以为她在开玩笑，但事实并非如此，她是一个天生的女权主义者。
格雷厄姆夫人在参加爱达荷州桑凡举行的商务会议时因摔倒而导致头部受伤。三天后，即2001年7月 17日，她在昏迷中与世长辞，享年八十四岁。在对她的悼念中，很多人都提到，她没有依靠任何福荫，而是依靠自己的努力获得了成功。这部分是由于她对自己的不足始终报着一种坦诚的态度。这一点无论是在她与朋友的交往中还是在她自己所著的书中都有所体现。但是正如她在自传《个人历史》中所说的那样，她在后半生中表现出来的那些有目共睹的品质———机智、独立、坚决、勇敢———始终是她生命中的一部分。
