Katharine Graham was born to a rich New York financier, became a busy mother, and ended up running one of America’s top newspapers, The Washington Post. She became the subject of Steven Spielberg film The Post, starring Meryl Streep.

Graham had an image as a cultured society hostess who lived in a grand Washington residence, the friend of US presidents and their wives.

But this image omits the decades of hard work to make the Washington Post into the institution it became, and a fair amount of personal tragedy along the way. She tells the story in her classic autobiography, Personal History.

In 1933, Katharine’s father Eugene bought the Washington Post, a struggling newspaper with only the fifth biggest circulation in the city. She worked there in between her studies, and felt a strong loyalty to the Post and its ethos of truth and impartiality.

But as a woman she was never expected to help run the company. It was her husband, Phil Graham, who was placed in that role. Katharine took on the role of raising children.

Socially, the Grahams were at the centre of Washington’s political and media elite. They were friends of John and Jacqui Kennedy, and of many in Kennedy’s administration. Phil would write speeches for Bobby Kennedy, and had easy access to JFK.

But behind the glamor, all was not well. In 1957, Phil Graham was showing signs of manic depression, with swings from hyperactivity, impatience, and explosive anger, to calmness and deep insecurity.

Then, Katharine discovered her husband’s affair with Robin Webb, an Australian journalist working for Newsweek. The bottom fell out of her world.

Phil came back to her, but his mental illness continued, and was moved to a psychiatric lodge. He managed to convince doctors that treatment was going well. A few days later, while at their family farm, Phil Graham shot himself. Katharine was in the next room.

Black with grief, Katharine went before the Washington Post’s board. She told them the paper would not be sold, but continue into the next generation.