Personal History

KATHARINE GRAHAM HAS been called the most powerful woman in America. During Watergate, she was seen as a kind of First Amendment icon, a symbol of journalistic independence and integrity. She captured the popular imagination because she stood up to Richard Nixon and because she was chief executive officer of the largest Fortune 500 company to be run by a woman. She became a social figure as well, seemingly at ease with in- ternational glitterati and heads of state. In Washington, invitations to her dinner parties are not declined. Her employees, including those at NEWSWEEK, sometimes feared her. Over the years she became a formidable myth. Most of the time, however, she was racked with self-doubt.

Now approaching her 80th birthday, Mrs. Graham has written her autobiography, ""Personal History,'' to be published this month by Knopf. It is an unusual memoir. The subject actually wrote the book herself, with editorial help but not the usual ghostwriter. The book may strike readers as painfully, even embarrassingly, honest. Mrs. Graham was unprepared when she took over The Washington Post Company after her husband's death. Her on-the-job training was erratic and slow, and she made many mistakes. But at critical moments she stood fast.

Taking over

Life After Phil

In the summer of 1963, Mrs. Graham's extraordinarily able husband, Philip, shot himself after a long battle with manic depression:

ON THE DAY BEFORE THE FUNERAL, THE BOARD OF directors of the company met. Fritz [Beebe, chairman of the board of the Post Company] suggested that if I felt up to it I should come to the office to say a few words to the directors, reassuring them that the company would go on and not be sold. I agreed, but was terrified. I thought about what to say, wrote it out, and even rehearsed. When the car arrived to take me downtown, [my 20-year-old daughter] Lally, in her nightgown and robe, hopped in and went along with me for comfort and support. I still have her touching and helpful handwritten notes on what she felt I should say--notes that she placed in my hands and which I relied on in what I said: