--- title: The Post: True Story Behind Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham description: Kay Graham's role in the Pentagon Papers saga—now seen 'The Post'—might have surprised those who knew her in her earliest days at the paper. canonical: https://time.com/5069599/katharine-graham-meryl-streep-the-post/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-20T14:00:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:37:13.350Z article:section: History og:title: The True Story Behind Katharine Graham's Rise to Publisher in 'The Post' og:description: She's played by Meryl Streep in the new Steven Spielberg movie og:url: https://time.com/5069599/katharine-graham-meryl-streep-the-post/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdac137ce62c460b2/6988f586929fad37f7beee8b/graham.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Katharine Graham og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The True Story Behind Katharine Graham's Rise to Publisher in 'The Post' twitter:description: She's played by Meryl Streep in the new Steven Spielberg movie twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdac137ce62c460b2/6988f586929fad37f7beee8b/graham.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The True Story Behind Katharine Graham's Rise to Publisher in _The Post_ > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 20, 2017 2:00 PM UTC  American newspaper publisher Katharine Graham (1917 - 2001) of the Washington Post, June 6, 1980. American newspaper publisher Katharine Graham (1917 - 2001) of the Washington Post, June 6, 1980.Robert R. McElroy—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 20, 2017 2:00 PM UTC **_Contains spoilers for_** **The Post** The new movie [_The Post_](http://time.com/5045566/top-10-movies-2017/), out Friday, finds the titular paper at a pivotal moment in its history. In 1971, after the New York _Times_ was temporarily [barred from publishing](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-07-05/page/41/) the explosive information in the [Pentagon Papers](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-06-28/page/1/), the Washington _Post_ (and other publications) made the decision to report on parts of the leaked classified documents about the Vietnam War. Though the process of publishing the news was a team effort, ultimately the choice came down to one person: Washington _Post_ publisher Katharine “Kay” Graham, played in the movie by Meryl Streep. As Graham would write in her acclaimed 1997 [memoir](https://books.google.com/books/about/Personal%5FHistory.html?id=jkxz77hC%5F48C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp%5Fread%5Fbutton#v=onepage&q=pentagon&f=false) _Personal History_, she was hosting a party and in the middle of making a toast when she was called to the phone to make the final decision — one that could potentially put the entire company in jeopardy. Instead, the decision would become one of the most famous in the paper’s history, and would eventually receive legal backing when a court [found](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-07-12/page/16/) that the government had not adequately proved that publication was a danger to national security. But it might have surprised anyone who knew Graham in her earliest days at the paper, as the job of decision-making publisher was one that came to her in a tortuous fashion. Graham’s father, Eugene Meyer, had [purchased](http://time.com/vault/issue/1933-06-19/page/54/) the _Post_ in 1933\. Though his only son had decided to become a doctor, his daughter Kay took an interest in the paper. After she graduated from college, she took a job as an editorial assistant, a role she held in 1939 when she met a young man named Philip Graham, whom she married in 1940\. As [a 1956 TIME cover story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1956-04-16/page/1/) about the Washington _Post_ explained, Meyer passed the publisher baton to his son-in-law in 1946 — even though Phil was a lawyer by training who had spent six months as associate publisher while Kay had cut her teeth at the paper beginning more than a decade previously. (Interestingly, that 1956 story also notes that while the _Post_ was noteworthy in Washington for being independent in its political leanings — at the time, conventional wisdom held that the U.S. mainstream media was a force on the side of Republicans — it had long taken on an opposition role when it came to Richard Nixon.) Two years after Graham took over as publisher, Meyer turned over his ownership of the paper to the couple, and in the next decade the once-struggling paper found its voice and its economic footing. But in 1963, Philip Graham’s leadership came to [an abrupt halt.](http://time.com/vault/issue/1963-08-09/page/64/) After six weeks of voluntary inpatient treatment for what was then known as manic depression, he returned home and shot himself. He died at age 48\. About two months later, Katharine Graham [officially](http://time.com/vault/issue/1963-09-27/page/41/) became president of the company, eventually taking on the roles of publisher, chairman, and CEO, with the promise that she would continue her husband’s legacy. In _Personal History_ she shed a light on her side of that time period, as TIME explained in its [review](http://time.com/vault/issue/1997-02-03/page/71/) of the book: --- > “” --- She was still watched, but in a different way, nearly a decade later when the Pentagon Papers episode began — and, as the movie version of the story bows to [strong](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the%5Fpost/) early reviews, it’s clear that she made an impression. In 1979, Graham [passed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1979-01-22/page/87/) the publisher job to her son Donald E. Graham, though she kept her ownership and CEO-chairperson role for many more years, remaining involved with the company until her [death](http://time.com/vault/issue/2001-07-30/page/64/) in 2001. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5069599/katharine-graham-meryl-streep-the-post/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5069599/katharine-graham-meryl-streep-the-post/"},"headline":"The True Story Behind Katharine Graham's Rise to Publisher in The Post","datePublished":"2017-12-20T14:00:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:37:13.350Z","description":"She's played by Meryl Streep in the movie version of the true story","url":"https://time.com/5069599/katharine-graham-meryl-streep-the-post/","keywords":["movies","Media","True Story Behind"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdac137ce62c460b2/6988f586929fad37f7beee8b/graham.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdac137ce62c460b2/6988f586929fad37f7beee8b/graham.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Katharine Graham","caption":"Portrait Of Publisher Katharine Graham","creditText":"Robert R. 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