Alfred Friendly (AC 1933) Papers, 1911-1983 (Bulk 1927-1982)
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Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
Finding aid encoded using Perl scripts and edited in XMetal 2.0. Encoded by David Schaich. 2004-04-09
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Alfred Friendly (AC 1933) Papers
Creation of Alfred Friendly (AC 1933) Papers
Time of Creation of Alfred Friendly (AC 1933) Papers
5 records storage boxes, 10 flat boxes, 1 half archives box
Friendly, Alfred (1911-1983)
Biographical History for: Alfred Friendly (AC 1933) Papers
Biographical Note Alfred Friendly, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and longtime managing editor of the Washington Post, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of Edward Rosenbaum and Harriet Friendly. Friendly graduated from Amherst College in 1933 with high honors in German. Shortly after graduation, Willard Thorp, one of Friendly's former economics professors, helped him to secure a position at the U. S. Department of Commerce in Washington. Friendly later worked for Thorp in New York City on the reorganization of Associated Gas & Electric. From 1935 to 1936, Friendly and his friend Chalmers M. Roberts traveled around the United States; this experience, which the two men chronicled in an account entitled "The Trek: or, Adventures in Depression America," reportedly had a profound impact on Friendly. Friendly worked for the Washington Daily News, the precursor to the Washington Post, which he joined as a reporter in 1939. During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps, Military Intelligence Service, earning the rank of Major. After the war he worked for a year in Paris as press chief for W. Averell Harriman. He became managing editor of The Washington Post in 1955 and helped to transform the newspaper into a national publication of great renown during a crucial formative period in its history. Friendly retired as managing editor in 1965 and moved to London to become a roving correspondent for the Post. In this capacity Friendly won a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for coverage of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Friendly retired from journalism in 1971 but continued to write columns on many occasions. Friendly served as an Amherst College trustee from 1961 to 1967. His diverse personal interests included archaeology, mathematics, naval history and atomic energy. His interest in archaeology prompted him to take a house in Turkey in 1971. Alfred Friendly was the author of several books, including "The Guys on the Ground" (1944); "Crime and Publicity: the Impact of News on the Administration of Justice" (with Ronald L. Goldfarb, 1967); "Israel's Oriental Immigrants and Druzes" (1972); "Beaufort of the Admiralty: the Life of Sir Francis Beaufort, 1774-1857" (1977); and "The Dreadful Day: the Battle of Manzikert, 1071" (1981). Friendly was married with five children. Suffering from terminal throat and lung cancer near the end of his life, Friendly committed suicide in his Georgetown apartment on November 7, 1983 at the age of 71.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The collection consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence, and writings by Friendly: columns written for the Washington Post (or its precursor, the Washington Daily News), or for other publications; manuscripts; and various other endeavors. The majority of the collection is housed in scrapbooks compiled by Friendly himself.
Journalists--United States--Biography--Sources.
lcsh
Friendly, Alfred.
lcnaf
Amherst College--Students.
Amherst College. Class of 1933. Friendly.
series
Series 1: Correspondence ca. 1970-1983
Series 1, Correspondence, ca. 1970-1983, includes letters with intimates as well as more formal letters.
Correspondence - A ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - B ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - C ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - D ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - E ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - F ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - G ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - H ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - I ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - J ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - K ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - L ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - Mc ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - M ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - N ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - O ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - P ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - Q-R ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - Random House 1977-1981
Correspondence - S ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - T ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - U ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - V ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - W ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - X-Z ca. 1970-1983
Correspondence - unidentified ca. 1970-1983
Series 2: School Days, 1927-1933
Series 2, School Days, 1927-1933, contains high school and college materials, including yearbooks and school publications of original work.
Autograph album 1925-1926
"Eastonia" (high school yearbook) 1927
"Eastonia" (high school yearbook) 1929
"Amherst Student" 1930-31
Amherst essays and plays 1929-1933
"Lord Jeff" 1929-1933
Amherst memorabilia 1929-1933
"Olio" 1932
Series 3: Writings, 1934-1981
Series 3, Writings, 1934-1981, comprise the newspaper columns, articles, books and other pieces written by Alfred Friendly, in manuscript or published form. For Friendly's post-1938 writings in the Washington Daily News, see Series 4, Scrapbook Folders.
Africa 1959-1962
"Beaufort of the Admiralty" 1977
"Beaufort of the Admiralty" 1977-1982
"Briefing" n.d.
Children's Stories - miscellaneous 1978-1988
Children's Stories - "The Billwitz" n.d.
Children's Stories - "Dragomir" n.d.
Children's Stories - "Dragomir" - 2 copies of book 1988
Children's Stories - "The Great Battle Between the /s and the &s" n.d.
Children's Stories - "The Great Somersault Epidemic" n.d.
Children's Stories - "Mr. Grabbem and the Space Business" n.d.
Children's Stories - "Stanislaus" n.d.
Children's Stories - "Strange Affair at De Poopcy Castle" n.d.
Children's Stories - "Stroganoff" n.d.
Children's Stories - "The Strong Weak Finish" n.d.
Children's Stories - "Whitman the Whale" n.d.
Children's Stories - "Windswept House" - correspondence 1987
Children's Stories - manuscripts and correspondence n.d.
Children's Stories - "Editor's Ink" - correspondence 1987-1988
Christmas Verses 1948-1965
Christmas Verses 1953-1954
Commonplace Books - research n.d.
Commonplace Books - correspondence 1982
Commonplace Books - manuscripts n.d.
"Conquest of Goat Mountain" 1953
Defense Industry n.d.
Diary of Visit to Europe w/ Eugene Mayer 1947
"The Dreadful Day" - reviews and correspondence 1977-1982
"The Economist" 1951-1952
"Expedition: the Magazine of Archaeology and Anthropology" - articles 1971-1975
"The Guys on the Ground" & related pieces - reviews and correspondence 1943-1946
"The Guys on the Ground" 1943-1946
"Israel's Oriental Immigrants and Druzes" 1972
Japanese Newspapers n.d.
Lilienthal, David F. 1947
Memoirs: Associated Gas & Electric n.d.
Memoirs: Childhood n.d.
Memoirs: Foreword n.d.
Memoirs: Marshall Plan 1948-1982
Memoirs: New Deal n.d.
Memoirs: Philip Graham n.d.
Memoirs: Wartime n.d.
Memoirs: Miscellaneous n.d.
Miscellaneous n.d.
Poems and Limericks n.d.
Side (Turkey) 1970 and n.d.
Side (Turkey) n.d.
Speech at American University, Washington College of Law 1973
Spoofs 1977-1981 and n.d.
"Stylus" (a bulletin on style and usage at the Washington Post) 1977-1980
"The Trek: or, Adventures in Depression America" - letters to family n.d.
"The Trek: or, Adventures in Depression America" - mementos n.d.
"The Trek: or, Adventures in Depression America" - manuscripts n.d.
"The Trek" - original typescript, pp.1-110 n.d.
"The Trek: or, Adventures in Depression America" - original typescript, pp. 111-229 n.d.
"The Trek: or, Adventures in Depression America" - original typescript, pp.230-308 n.d.
"The Trek: or, Adventures in Depression America" - photocopy of typescript n.d.
Turkey 1964-1975
Turkey 1978
Turkey 1977-1980 and n.d.
Turkey n.d.
Washington Daily News, 1st Important Job 1936-1937
Washington Post reprints 1941-1959
Washington Daily News "9-4:30" column #1 1937 Sep-1938 May
Washington Daily News "9-4:30" column #2 1938 May-1938 Oct
Washington Daily News "9-4:30" column #3 1938 Feb-Apr and n.d.
Washington Daily News "9-4:30" column 1938
Washington Daily News - Greenbelt (low-rent housing project near Berwyn, Maryland) 1937; and Post article, 1981 1937, 1981
Washington Daily News - "The Story of Ferdinand 1938
Washington Daily News column - "The Federal Diary" 1939-1940
Series 4: Scrapbook Folders, 1939-1983
Series 4, Scrapbook Folders, 1939-1983, contains newspaper clippings or articles written by Friendly, or concerning Friendly's writings.
Scrapbook folder 1939-1940
Scrapbook folder 1941 Dec-1942 Sep
Scrapbook folder 1945
Scrapbook folder 1946 Jan-Apr
Scrapbook folder 1946 May-Dec
Scrapbook folder 1947 Jan-Jun
Scrapbook folder 1947 Jul-Dec
Scrapbook folder 1948 Jan-May
"Condon" Scrapbook folder 1948
Scrapbook folder 1949 Sep-1950 Apr
Scrapbook folder 1950 May-1951 Mar
Scrapbook folder 1950 Mar-1950 Apr
Philip C. Jessup Scrapbook Folder 1951
Scrapbook folder 1951 May-1967 Jun
Goat Mountain Scrapbook folder 1953
Scrapbook folder 1966-1969
Israel Scrapbook Folder 1967 May-1968 May
Pulitzer Prize Scrapbook Folder 1967 Jun-1968 Jun
Scrapbook folder 1970 Jan-1971 Sep
Clippings 1970-1971
Scrapbook folder 1971-1982
Clippings 1972-1983
Series 5: Subject Files, n.d.
Series 5, Subject Files, n.d., includes various topical biographical files relating to Friendly's life activities and interests.
FBI-Freedom of Information-Privacy Acts requests 1939-1982
International Friends of Side [Turkey] 1973
World War II military papers and orders 1943-1944
Turkey miscellaneous maps, tour guides, etc. n.d.
Turkey snapshot photographs ca. 1969-1978
Atomic energy 1947
Biographical and genealogical material
"Beaufort of the Admiralty" - correspondence, press clippings, etc. 1977
Newspaper article, "Al Friendly Defects From Post" 1971
70th Birthday Party (Invitation and photographs) 1981
Lyrics to Friendly's Libretto "La Sterlina Dollarosa" ca. 1949
Condolence letters, A-G 1983
Condolence letters, H-L 1983
Condolence letters, M-R 1983
Condolence letters, S-Z 1983
Audiocassette of operetta spoof "La Sterlina Dollarosa" with printed copy of lyrics 1949
Videocassettes (2) of television programs on the subject of economics from 1952 1952
Photograph album of Mr. and Mrs. Friendly's travels in southern Turkey ca. 1965-1966