(The following essay discusses Philip Graham and his wife, Katharine Graham.)

Both Philip and Katharine Graham played vital roles in making the Washington Post--purchased at a bankruptcy sale in 1933 by Katharine's parents, Eugene and Agnes Ernst Meyer--into the base of an influential media empire. Today the Washington Post Company consists of diversified media holdings including the news magazine Newsweek; four television stations; cable television systems; an on-line information service; newsprint manufacturing and distribution operations; and ownership interests in the Los Angeles Times--Washington Post News Service, the International Herald Tribune, and Cowles Media Company. Its keystone, however, remains the Washington Post, considered one of the leading newspapers in the world, known particularly for its role in exposing the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. Its present standing is attributed largely to the leadership of Katharine Graham, a timid housewife who uncertainly...