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　　Going It Alone

　　Despite her personal tragedy, Graham was determined to keep the Washington Post in the family, and took over the day-to-day running of the paper herself. Skeptics who had doubted her ability to make a success of it were dumbfounded5 as her enthusiasm and tenacity proved them wrong.

　　Graham was never afraid of making a courageous decision. Against the advice of the Post’s lawyers, she sided with her editors and published the Pentagon Papers. The papers were top secret documents about the United States’involvement in the Vietnam War. She later remained steadfast6 in the face of government pressure not to pursue the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

　　Graham handed over the control of the Post to her son in 1991, when she was 74 years old. By that time, she was often being described as the most powerful woman in America. Whether or not that was true, few would disagree with the assessment7 of one of her many admirers, that without her, Washington“would have been a much less civilized place.”

　　Avid readers who look to biography for inspiration could do worse than pick up a copy of Katherine Graham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning“Personal History.”It is a rich chronicle of momentous8 events and the people that played their part in them. It is also the fascinating story of a person of character and values that many would like to emulate.