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Hired by the Seattle Times in 1951 to work in the "Society Department", by the late 1960s she was the women's news editor. Tiring of "society" news dominating news for women, Almquist focused instead on issues facing women, such as women's rights, birth control, and women in business. "I had realized that ...there were exciting times ahead," she recalled in a 1980 interview. "The tea party was over, and as the women put down their cups and entered the worlds of business, professions, industry and government, our section followed them." It was a trend that spread to other papers. "So much of what we see today in modern feature sections in newspapers had their origins in June," said Seattle Times President Mason Sizemore. "She was one of those people whose feet were in the old ways of doing things but who could bridge the new ways." Almquist died April 2 of cancer. She was 75. From This is True for 2 April 2000 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Katharine Graham List Price: $15.95 Amazon Price: $10.85 Editorial Review: In lieu of an unrevealing Famous-People-I-Have-Known autobiography, the owner of the Washington Post has chosen to be remarkably candid about the insecurities prompted by remote parents and a difficult marriage to the charismatic, manic-depressive Phil Graham, who ran the newspaper her father acquired. Katharine's account of her years as subservient daughter and wife is so painful 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. After that, Watergate is practically an anticlimax.Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography An extraordinarily frank, honest, and generous book by one of America's most famous and admired women, Personal History is, as its title suggests, a book composed of both personal memoir and history. It is the story of Graham's parents: the multimillionaire father who left private business and government service to buy and restore the down-and-out Washington Post, and the formidable, self-absorbed mother who was more interested in her political and charity work, and her passionate friendships with men like Thomas Mann and Adlai Stevenson, than in her children. It is the story of how The Washington Post struggled to succeed -- a fascinating and instructive business history as told from the inside (the paper has been run by Graham herself, her father, her husband, and now her son). It is the story of Phil Graham -- Kay's brilliant, charismatic husband (he clerked for two Supreme Court justices) -- whose plunge into manic-depression, betrayal, and eventual suicide is movingly and charitably recounted. Best of all, it is the story of Kay Graham herself. She was brought up in a family of great wealth, yet she learned and understood nothing about money. She is half-Jewish, yet -- incredibly -- remained unaware of it for many years.She describes herself as having been naive and awkward, yet intelligent and energetic. She married a man she worshipped, and he fascinated and educated her, and then, in his illness, turned from her and abused her. This destruction of her confidence and happiness is a drama in itself, followed by the even more intense drama of her new life as the head of a great newspaper and a great company, a famous (and even feared) woman in her own right. Hers is a life that came into its own with a vengeance -- a success story on every level. Graham's book is populated with a cast of fascinating characters, from fifty years of presidents (and their wives), to Steichen, Brancusi, Felix Frankfurter, Warren Buffett (her great advisor and protector), Robert McNamara, George Schultz (her regular tennis partner), and, of course, the great names from the Post: Woodward, Bernstein, and Graham's editorpartner, Ben Bradlee. She writes of them, and of the most dramatic moments of her stewardship of the Post (including the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and the pressmen's strike), with acuity, humor, and good judgment. Her book is about learning by doing, about growing and growing up, about Washington, and about a woman liberated by both circumstance and her own great strengths.An extraordinarily frank, honest, and generous book by one of America's most famous and admired women -- a book that is, as its title suggests, both personal and history. It is the story of Katherine Graham's parents: the multi-millionaire father who left private business and government service to buy and restore the down-and-out Washington Post; the aggressive, formidable, self-absorbed mother, known in her time for her political and welfare work, and her passionate friendships with men such as Thomas Mann and Adlai Stevenson.  By: Mary Daheim List Price: $24.00 Amazon Price: $16.32 Editorial Review: In Alpine, Washington–Mary Daheim’s cozy hamlet in the Cascade Mountains–mystery fans can meet folks whose colorful quirks and welcoming manner make the town feel like home. Alpine’s bastion of bylines, Emma Lord’s weekly newspaper, The Alpine Advocate, is the current that drives the rumor mill of small-town life . . . and occasional death. But even the eagerly anticipated Advocate isn’t immune to the perils of the outside world. THE ALPINE TRAITOR Emma Lord is shocked to hear the outrageous news: The Advocate is embroiled in a takeover bid. Worse, the ruthless acquisitioners are the heirs of Emma’s longtime and tragically departed lover, Tom Cavanaugh. They have come to Alpine–to stay. Soon, battle lines are drawn and war is declared. Then the first casualty is discovered facedown at the Tall Timber Motel. The victim is Dylan Platte, front man for the buy-out offer Emma turned down cold. Naturally, Emma is a prime suspect. Then it turns out that the dead man has a big surprise for the living–one that involves the glamorous Ginger Roth, a bodacious Alpine newbie who can perform the dumb blonde act in her sleep. Emma’s ever-inquisitiv a bullet, Emma and the rest of the e House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, plumbs her extensive grapevine, from the Burger Barn to the Venison Inn, determined to connect the dots. But when an Advocate insider is next to takeAlpiners make it their mission to find a killer. Mary Daheim’s newest Alpine thriller throws an intriguing wrench into Emma’s domain, delighting fans with a generous helping of just deserts–in a town where secrets are everybody’s business.  By: Cynthia Rylant List Price: $3.99 Amazon Price: $3.99 Editorial Review: Meet the Cobble Street Cousins * Lily, who wants to be a poet * * Tess, who wants to be a Broadway star * * Rosie, who wants a little cottage with flowers by the door * It's spring on Cobble Street, and Lily has a great idea -- the Cobble Street Cousins' own newspaper! Soon the very first edition of The Cobble Street Courier is hot off the presses, with a poem by Lily, Tess's favorite jokes, and Rosie's yummy recipe for shortbread -- even an interview with Aunt Lucy's boyfriend, Michael. Now it's time to deliver the paper to all the cousins' old friends on Cobble Street -- and a couple of new ones!  By: Eleanor Roosevelt List Price: $16.95 Amazon Price: $11.53 Editorial Review: Recently named "Woman of the Century" in a survey conducted by the National Women's Hall of Fame, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote her hugely popular syndicated column "My Day" for over a quarter of that century, from 1936 to 1962. This collection brings together for the first time in a single volume the most memorable of those columns, written with singular wit, elegance, compassion, and insight—everything from her personal perspectives on the New Deal and World War II to the painstaking diplomacy required of her as chair of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights after the war to the joys of gardening at her beloved Hyde Park home. To quote Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "What a remarkable woman she was! These sprightly and touching selections from Eleanor Roosevelt's famous column evoke an extraordinary personality."  By: Kerry Greenwood List Price: $14.95 Amazon Price: $14.95 Editorial Review: This is where it all started! The first classic Phryne Fisher mystery, featuring our delectable heroine, cocaine, communism and adventure. Phryne leaves the tedium of English high society for Melbourne, Australia, and never looks back. The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honorable Phryne Fisher--she of the green-grey eyes, diamant garters and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions--is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversations with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia. Almost immediately from the time she books into the Windsor Hotel, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops and communism--not to mention erotic encounters with the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse--until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street. |
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