Personal History

In lieu of an unrevealing Famous-People-I-Have-Known autobiography, Katharine Graham has chosen to be remarkably candid about the insecurities prompted by remote parents and a difficult marriage to charismatic manic-depressive Phil Graham, who ran the newspaper her father acquired. So painful is her account of her years as a subservient daughter and wife that by the time she finally asserts herself at the Post following Phil's suicide in 1963 (more than halfway through the book), readers will want to cheer.