Brown, Elizabeth Churchill

American journalist.

From the description of Elizabeth Churchill Brown papers, 1943-1984. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 754872081

Biographical Note

Elizabeth Brown and her husband, Constantine Brown, were active journalists in Washington, D.C. and abroad for many years. As a result, they established contacts with key political and diplomatic figures both nationally and internationally. After obtaining a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Berlin (c. 1912), Constantine Brown was in Cambridge, England doing post-graduate work when World War I began. He covered the war on the Russian front for the London Times, was in Russia when the Revolution began, and was one of the first American newspapermen to interview Lenin. He subsequently became Bureau Chief for the Chicago Daily News in Turkey, Paris and London, and moved to the Washington Evening Star as Foreign Affairs Editor in 1932. In 1942, he began writing a column syndicated by the Bell-McClure organization. His memoirs, entitled The Coming of the Whirlwind, were published in 1964. Disturbed by the defeat of Richard Nixon in 1960 and the liberal emphasis of the Kennedy administration, the Browns decided to move to Europe, living in Rome from 1961 to early 1965. After returning to Washington, Constantine Brown died on Feb. 24, 1966.

Elizabeth Brown, who was born in 1908, worked as a society reporter, first for the New York Evening Journal, then for Town and Country magazine and the Washington Post. She married Constantine Brown in 1949. Impressed by his analyses, she became interested in issues of American foreign and domestic policy, and began writing more substantive materials. Living in Washington during the early 1950s, the Browns were friendly with Joseph R. and Jean McCarthy, as well as a number of other prominent conservatives. In 1956 she published a book, entitled The Enemy at His Back, about Communist influence on post-World War II American foreign policy. She also wrote another book, more specifically about the McCarthy era. This was tentatively entitled Joe McCarthy and Other Anti-Communists: A Memoir of Conservative Politics in the Washington of the Early Nineteen Fifties, but was never published. Mrs. Brown continued to write after Mr. Brown's death, including a long series for William Loeb and the Manchester Union Leader.

From the guide to the Elizabeth Churchill Brown papers, 1943-1984, (Hoover Institution Archives)