Meg Greenfield

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title: "Meg Greenfield" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["20th-century-american-women-journalists", "20th-century-american-memoirists", "jewish-american-journalists", "the-washington-post-people", "smith-college-alumni", "writers-from-seattle", "pulitzer-prize-for-editorial-writing-winners", "1930-births", "1999-deaths", "20th-century-american-women-writers", "20th-century-american-businesspeople", "20th-century-american-businesswomen", "20th-century-american-journalists", "american-women-memoirists", "20th-century-american-jews"] description: "American journalist" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Greenfield" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American journalist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Meg Greenfield
image	Meg Greenfield.jpg
birth_name	Mary Ellen Greenfield
birth_date
birth_place	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Georgetown, Washington, D.C., U.S.
alma_mater
occupation	Editorial writer
employer
::

| name = Meg Greenfield | image = Meg Greenfield.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Mary Ellen Greenfield | birth_date = | birth_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Georgetown, Washington, D.C., U.S. | death_cause = | alma_mater = | occupation = Editorial writer | employer =

Mary Ellen Greenfield (December 27, 1930 – May 13, 1999), known as Meg Greenfield, was an American editorial writer who worked for The Washington Post and Newsweek. She was also a Washington, D.C. insider, known for her wit. Greenfield won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing.

A book she authored was published posthumously.{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/23/books/meg-greenfield-s-secret-book-offers-insights-but-no-dish.html |title=Meg Greenfield's Secret Book Offers Insights but No Dish |author=Jill Abramson |date=April 23, 2001}}{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/29/reviews/010429.29clymert.html |title=Big Potomac High School: Posthumously, Meg Greenfield says what she thinks of Washington. |author=Adam Clymer |date=April 29, 2001}}

Life and career

Greenfield was born in Seattle, the daughter of Lorraine (Nathan) and Lewis James Greenfield. Her family was Jewish. She attended The Bush School and graduated summa cum laude from Smith College in 1952. She also studied at Cambridge University as a Fulbright Scholar and was friends there with Norman Podhoretz, who also went on to a career in journalism.

She became influential in a male-dominated world and a close confidante of Post publisher Katharine Graham. She spent 20 years as the editorial page editor for The Washington Post and 25 years as a columnist for Newsweek. She influenced generations of Washington Post writers.

When diagnosed with cancer, Greenfield partly retired to Bainbridge Island in her native Washington, where she wrote a posthumously published memoir entitled Washington. She died of the disease, at age 68.

Greenfield was portrayed by Carrie Coon in 2017 film, The Post.

Awards and honors

• Greenfield won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing.

Bibliography

References

References

1. Harmon, Daniel P.. "Meg Greenfield Biography".
2. McManus, Jeanne. (May 25, 2014). "My Mercurial, brutal, brilliant woman boss". [[The Washington Post]].
3. Smith, J. Y.. (May 14, 1999). "Newsweek Columnist Meg Greenfield Dies". [[The Washington Post]].
4. Barringer, Felicity. (May 14, 1999). "Meg Greenfield, Who Shaped Washington Post's Editorial Page, Dies at 68". [[The New York Times]].
5. "Meg Greenfield of The Washington Post".

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