Perspective

As a memoir, Personal History is told in the first person from Kay Graham's point of view. In her 70s, Kay Graham retires as publisher of the Washington Post, wants to keep busy and decides her life may be interesting to general readers. She is dissatisfied with the coverage her parents and husband have received in print, and she devotes much of her attention to their lives and careers. Graham is educated at the University of Chicago and works for a small San Francisco newspaper as a reporter before joining her father's Post. Because in the 1940s it is unthinkable for women to lead a business, her husband Phil is brought in to assist father and succeed him as publisher. Kay is content to be a typical (albeit upper-class) suburban housewife until Phil commits suicide, when she is suddenly thrust into the all-male world of publishing. She learns...