Edward Beale McLean

Who was Edward Beale McLean?

Edward Beale "Ned" McLean was the publisher and owner of The Washington Post newspaper from 1916 until 1933.

Edward McLean was born into a publishing fortune founded by his paternal grandfather Washington McLean, who owned The Washington Post and The Cincinnati Enquirer. He was the only child of John Roll McLean, for whom McLean, Virginia, is named, and the former Emily Truxtun Beale, the daughter of Edward F. Beale and the former Mary Edwards. Emily was a hostess and socialite who was the inspiration for the character Victoria Dare in the 1880 comic novel, Democracy: An American Novel by Henry Brooks Adams.

In 1908, Edward McLean married Evalyn Walsh, the only surviving child and sole heiress of mining millionaire Thomas Walsh. Following a honeymoon trip around the world, the couple returned to Washington and settled in at the McLean family's country house 'Friendship' along Wisconsin Avenue to the south of the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D. C. The McLeans lived lavishly and had a large part in Washington society. They were close friends of Senator and President Warren G. Harding and first lady Florence Harding.