Scope and Content Note
The papers of Mary Ellen Greenfield (1930-1999) span the years 1890-1999, with the bulk of material dating from 1952 to 1999. The papers contain personal and professional correspondence, speeches and writings, research files, interview transcripts, memoranda, minutes, reports, calendars and schedules, cartoons, financial and legal records, travel files, academic records, biographical material, honors and awards, childhood diaries and writings, family papers, photographs, scrapbooks, printed matter, and digital files documenting her career in journalism as Washington correspondent and editor for Reporter magazine (1961-1968), editorial writer and editor of the Washington Post editorial page (1968-1999), and columnist for Newsweek (1974-1999). The collection is in English and is arranged in seven series: Personal and Family Papers, General Correspondence, Professional Activities File, Speeches and Writings, Subject File, Oversize, and Digital File.
The Personal and Family Papers series is arranged in two parts. Family papers encompass Greenfield's correspondence with her parents, Lewis J. and Lorraine Nathan Greenfield; her brother, Jim Greenfield; and other members of the Greenfield and Nathan families. Much of the correspondence, particularly with her father and brother, evinces a family humor that, according to Greenfield, influenced her professional writing. Additional letters between Greenfield, her father, and brother can be found among personal papers from her years at Smith College and University of Cambridge and during her European travels in the 1950s. Most of Greenfield's letters to her mother, who died when Greenfield was twelve, were written as a young child. Lewis J. Greenfield's papers include a small amount of material relating to his auction house in Seattle. Lorraine Nathan Greenfield's papers feature items pertaining to her testimony at the murder trial of Nathan Freudenthal Leopold and Richard A. Loeb in 1924. Included is a transcript of her testimony about her friendship with Loeb, a letter from defense attorney Clarence Darrow, and an article about the trial written by Meg Greenfield in 1982. Housed in the Oversize series is a scrapbook created by Lorraine Greenfield at a school in Connecticut where she was sent by her family soon after the trial. The family papers also contain genealogical material and family photographs.
Personal papers provide biographical information and documentation on Greenfield's childhood, undergraduate education at Smith College, Fulbright scholarship at University of Cambridge, travels in Europe, and early career in journalism, as well as her subsequent honors and awards, board memberships, and social life as a prominent Washington journalist. Childhood papers consist of diaries with humorous entries and drawings from her high school years, writings consisting largely of poetry, and a newspaper titled “El-Jo Deluxe,” started by Greenfield with a friend at the age of nine. Material concerning her academic life and early career was organized by Greenfield in packets, an arrangement that has been maintained to preserve the context of the large amount of undated material. The groupings document Greenfield's undergraduate years at Smith College (1948-1952), her experiences in Europe as a Fulbright scholar at University of Cambridge and later as a resident of Rome (1952-1955), her early professional life in New York City (1955-1961) during which time she began working for the Reporter, and her first years in the nation's capital as the magazine's Washington correspondent. Material concerning her work for Adlai E. Stevenson's presidential campaign in 1956, including amusing vignettes and notes by her about the campaign, is filed separately in the series. The remainder of the personal papers dates from Greenfield's tenure with the Washington Post. Included is the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing she received in 1978 and congratulatory letters sent to her by friends and associates. A social file containing invitations, guest lists, names, and addresses traces the breadth of Greenfield's personal and professional associations. Although the invitations are largely social, some professional functions are represented. Completing the personal papers are articles about or mentioning Greenfield, biographical statements, foundation and board memberships, memorabilia, photocopies of book inscriptions, photographs, a travel file, material concerning speaking engagements and television appearances, and records relating to scholarships she established in her brother's name at the University of Washington.
The General Correspondence series consists primarily of letters, cards, and notes addressed to Greenfield with very few of her outgoing letters present. The bulk of the correspondence dates from the 1980s and 1990s. Much of it is social, conveying appreciation for dinners hosted by Greenfield, holiday greetings, get-well wishes, and updated information on personal activities and news. Some letters relate more directly to her writing and duties as editor of the Washington Post editorial page. Included are letters from cartoonists, columnists, and regular contributors; some op-ed submissions; reactions to editorials and published op-ed pieces; and comments on her own columns and writings by people she knew. The series reveals the wide circle of Greenfield's friends and associates who included journalists, editors, publishers, United States presidents, administration officials, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, writers, people in the arts, academics, university presidents, business leaders, Seattle friends, and Georgetown, D.C., neighbors. Although many of her correspondents were geographically dispersed, the series sheds considerable light on social life in Washington, D.C. Prominent correspondents are numerous and include Dean Acheson, Joseph Alsop, Nancy Kassebaum Baker, Leonard Beaton, Christopher Buckley, William F. Buckley, Warren Buffett, George Bush, Bruce Kerry Chapman, Nora Ephron, Bill and Melinda Gates, William H. Gates, Alfred Kazin, Slim Keith, Irving Kristol, James Lehrer, Nicholas Lemann, Anthony Lewis, Anne W. Marks, Mary McGrory, Daniel P. Moynihan, Anne L. Wexler, and George F. Will.
The Professional Activities File consists of correspondence and administrative records relating to Greenfield's work at the Reporter magazine, Washington Post, and Newsweek, as well as her membership on the Pulitzer Prize Board. The earliest material dates from her years with the Reporter and includes memoranda from her to editor Max Ascoli in which she presented story ideas and updated him on the progress of her reporting and writing. Letters to Greenfield include article proposals and submissions by others, requests to reprint her articles, and reactions from readers to her reporting. Commenting on her articles were members of the general public as well as friends and acquaintances, among them fellow journalists, editors, publishers, members of Congress, White House staff, writers, and academics. Included are letters from Russell Baker, George W. Ball, Robert Gottlieb, Fred Charles Iklé, Lady Bird Johnson, Larry L. King, Irving Kristol, Daniel P. Moynihan, and Tom Wicker. Filed separately is an article submitted by Daniel Ellsberg, titled “Vietnam Diary,” published in the Reporter in January 1966. Letters from Ellsberg relate how he wrote the article and comment on its editing. Additional correspondence from Greenfield's years with the Reporter is filed with packets of material on her early career in the Personal and Family Papers series and in the General Correspondence series.
Washington Post files constitute the bulk of the series and date primarily from Greenfield's years as editor of the editorial page, 1979-1999, although significant chronological gaps exist. A large correspondence file spans the years 1979-1994 and features letters from journalists, columnists, cartoonists, and editors; op-ed submissions and letters-to-the-editor from prominent public figures; and not-for-publication reactions to editorials and columns. Some personal correspondence is present. Letters from job seekers are disproportionately represented in correspondence dated before 1989, appearing thereafter sparingly. The subjects discussed in the correspondence file overlap with the contents of other folders, including those pertaining to cartoonists, columnists, syndicates, and the Post ombudsman, as well as a separate file of editorial correspondence. Notes from Benjamin C. Bradlee, Leonard Downie, and Donald E. Graham are attached to some of the correspondence in these files. A memoranda file includes what became known as “the memo” written by Greenfield in 1982 on public relations firms who claimed the ability to provide their clients access to the Washington Post's editorial board. Among other Washington Post material in the series is a scheduling file for editorial board and staff meetings with outside people, including public officials, political candidates, foundation directors, business leaders, university presidents, foreign dignitaries, and others. Greenfield's own meetings, activities, and conversations are chronicled in her calendars, expense account reports, and a telephone log. A list of guests invited to join Greenfield, Charles Krauthammer, and George F. Will at their Saturday lunches is available for 1987-1988. Travel files document trips to Africa, Asia, and the Soviet Union by Greenfield, Katharine Graham, and other Washington Post staff.
The Professional Activities File also contains letters from readers of Greenfield's Newsweek column. Pulitzer Prize Board files consist of correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, and background binders on nominees in the journalism and letters categories. Some board correspondence was filed by Greenfield's staff in the Washington Post correspondence file.
The Speeches and Writings series features photocopies and tear sheets of Greenfield's Reporter, Newsweek, and Washington Post articles, columns, editorials, and book reviews. Drafts of some of these works are filed with miscellaneous articles, drafts, and reprints in this series and in the Subject File under topics to which they relate. Greenfield started to write a memoir in the 1990s. The series includes handwritten notes and typed drafts of five chapters. The memoir was completed and posthumously published by historian Michael R. Beschloss at Greenfield's request. Also present among her writings are poems and notes for a work of fiction, dating largely from the 1950s. Greenfield's speeches include addresses presented at formal speaking engagements. Many of the speeches pertain to journalism. Also included are notes for informal remarks, most delivered at events honoring others.
The Subject File consists largely of Greenfield's research for her articles and columns. A series of notebooks dates from her years with the Reporter in the 1960s. Topics include New York politics, United States Congress, foreign policy, civil rights, science and public policy, and Vietnam. The bulk of the remaining files dates from the 1970s and 1980s and includes news clippings, drafts of her articles and columns, and some interview transcripts. Interviewees include Marion Barry, Jimmy Carter, Nicolae Ceauþescu, Jeremiah A. Denton, Louis Farrakhan, Hamilton Jordan, Walter F. Mondale, George Pratt Shultz, William H. Webster, Caspar W. Weinberger, and Anne L. Wexler.