Dossier 6 - Correspondence: 1950, Washington

1 file (Box 4)

Correspondence from Nora Beloff to her family covering the January to December of 1950. The letters are written from Washington where Beloff was working as Washington correspondent to The Observer. The letters provide detailed accounts of her social life and working environment in the US. As well as various trips further a field details of her work in Washington centre around the White House, the office, the state department and the Senate. In some of her letters Beloff does comment on her position as a female correspondent. Another feature of the letters are concerns about heightening tensions between America and Russia and the possible nuclear threat. In letters from as early as February Beloff discusses the possibility of her moving back to Paris but remaining as an Observer correspondent. For April there is a large body of correspondence and not all of it from Beloff. This correspondence gives an account of an accident involving Beloff on 8 April where Beloff's car was involved in a collision with a taxi. She was injured but sustained no serious permanent damage. Included in the letters is correspondence from Beloff's friends explaining the incident and giving reassurance to Beloff's family. The final letters from April give details of her convalescence at friends in California. Interesting is Beloff's continued concern with her work at this time, she plans her departure from California back to Washington on the presidential train so it can be timed it with Harry Truman's visit to the East Coast. From October in her letters Beloff appears to be finalising her plans to leave Washington and take up the position of Paris correspondent for The Observer early in 1951. However, the correspondence from late November indicates that Beloff's plans were altered due to the threat of war between the US and China for which it was felt necessary to have an experienced Washington correspondent such as Beloff in place. The initial plans were, therefore, adapted, with Beloff expecting to remain in Washington until the summer of 1951 when she would then take up the position of Paris correspondent.

Chronological