Katharine Graham - Early Life

Early Life

Katharine Graham was born Katharine Meyer in 1917 into a privileged family in New York City, the daughter of Agnes Elizabeth (née Ernst) and Eugene Meyer. Graham's father was a financier and, later, a public official. He bought The Washington Post in 1933 at a bankruptcy auction. Graham's mother was a bohemian intellectual, art lover, and political activist in the Republican Party, who shared friendships with people as diverse as Auguste Rodin, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt, and worked as a newspaper reporter at a time when journalism was an uncommon profession among women. Graham's father was Jewish and her mother was Lutheran, from a family of German descent.

Graham's parents owned several homes across the country, but primarily lived between a veritable 'castle' in Mount Kisco, New York, and a smaller home in Washington, D.C. Graham often did not see much of her parents during her childhood, as both traveled and socialized extensively, and was raised in part by nannies, governesses and tutors. Katharine endured a strained relationship with her mother. Agnes Meyer was reportedly very negative and condescending towards Katharine, which had a negative impact on Katharine's self-confidence.

Her elder sister Florence Meyer (1911–1962) was a successful photographer and wife of actor Oscar Homolka.

Graham was an alumna of The Madeira School (to which her father had donated much land) and attended Vassar College before transferring to the University of Chicago. In Chicago, she became quite interested in labor issues and shared friendships with people from walks of life very different from her own. After graduation, she worked for a short period at a San Francisco newspaper where, among other things, she helped cover a major strike by wharf workers.

Her father's sister, Florence Meyer Blumenthal founded the Prix Blumenthal, given to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians during the period of 1919-1954.

Graham began working for the Post in 1938. While in Washington, D.C., she met a former schoolmate, Will Lang Jr. The two dated, but broke off the relationship due to conflicting interests.