In terms of their backgrounds and upbringing, Philip and Katharine Graham led vastly different lives prior to their marriage at the Meyer family estate in Westchester County, New York, on 5 June 1940. She was born on 16 June 1917 in New York City into a wealthy family oriented to public service. Her father--the son of a well-to-do Jewish merchant and banker who had emigrated from France to Los Angeles--acquired a fortune on Wall Street and in international finance before marrying her mother, the daughter of German Lutheran immigrants.
The fourth of five children, Katharine experienced only limited emotional support from her mother, who resented the demands of domestic life and sometimes left the family to take trips abroad in pursuit of cultural and literary interests. A woman known for her intellectual interests, Agnes Meyer wrote a book on Chinese painting and published translations of the works of German author Thomas Mann, her close friend. She considered Katharine her inferior in terms of intellect and social aptitude.
Philip Graham had a much different start in life. He was born on 18 July 1915 in Terry, South Dakota, one of four children of Ernest Graham, a mining engineer and agricultural manager, and Florence Graham, a former schoolteacher.
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