"First Rough Draft of History"
In April 1963, Graham delivered a speech to the overseas correspondents of Newsweek in London:
- "So let us today drudge on about our inescapably impossible task of providing every week a first rough draft of history that will never really be completed about a world we can never really understand…"
The phrase " first rough draft of history" has entered the vernacular. While this quote may have been popularized by Graham in this speech, and the phrase is often credited to him in this speech, these words are not original with him, nor with this speech, the phrase having been used repeatedly in the Post in the 1940s, and by Graham in the 1950s, with the earliest citation being 20 years, by Alan Barth in 1943, writing "News is only the first rough draft of history," and earlier expressions of similar sentiments dating at least to the 1900s (decade) – see Wikiquote article for details.
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Famous quotes containing the words draft of history, rough, draft and/or history:
“News is the first rough draft of history.”
—Philip L. Graham (1915–1963)
“Not once or twice in our rough island story
The path of duty was the way to glory.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“It is crystal clear to me that if Arabs put down a draft resolution blaming Israel for the recent earthquake in Iran it would probably have a majority, the U.S. would veto it and Britain and France would abstain.”
—Amos Oz (b. 1939)
“I think that Richard Nixon will go down in history as a true folk hero, who struck a vital blow to the whole diseased concept of the revered image and gave the American virtue of irreverence and skepticism back to the people.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)