Letters sent and received by Breig and a smaller amount of family correspondence. Divided into two sub-series (FAMILY LETTERS and GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE). Each sub-series is arranged chronologically with a few folders arranged by subject. Correspondence after 1974 is filed in the CHRONOLOGICAL FILE below.

FAMILY LETTERS (1888-1947, 2.5") consists of letters exchanged between Breig's parents, siblings, and other relatives as well as of letters Breig wrote to his family during his time away at school and after he left home, through 1947. The letters with the Universe Bulletin letterhead are found in this sub-series because of their private nature. One can also find a few official letters from Notre Dame to Breig's parents.

Breig must have inherited some of these letters from his parents because they are not addressed to him -- some even date from atime when he wasn't yet born. Some of these letters are from his siblings to his parents and others are letters between his parents, letters from other relatives to his parents, and so on. But most of these letters somehow deal with Joseph Breig.

The letters are generally only news updates to inform other family members of what was going on. The bulk of this sub-series consists of letters from Joseph Breig to his family while at Notre Dame (1923-1927?). Some letters carry the letterhead of the Scribblers Club and one folder consist only of undated letters with the Scholastic letterhead. These letters deal for the most part with things of a private nature -- more money for expenses, sending his washing home, etc. He also writes about his teachers (Shuster -- Literature; Kaczmarek -- Biology; Cooney -- Journalism; Phillips -- English, Poetry, world literature, Dante, playwriting; Fr. Cavanaugh -- drama class; Becker -- History of Music; Fr. Healy -- Shakespeare; Fr. MacNamara -- History); how the Notre Dame football, basketball, and baseball teams have played; his encounters with the Ku Klux Klan in South Bend; his friend Red Smith; his visits to the movie theater (Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Oliver Theater), concerts (Fritz Kreisler and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Strauss, St. Patrick's Choir of Chicago: The Lass of Limerick Town at Washington Hall); his work for the Scholastic (he was editor-in-chief) and the Dome; his membership in the Scribblers (he was secretary and treasurer); the stories he published and literature contests he won for his stories (Culver College); his grades. His letters give a good insight into campus life from a student's point of view. The sub-series contains only letters sent by Breig to his family and no letters received by him.

GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE (1941-1974, 1') contains almost all of Breig's extant correspondence until the end of 1974 except for what is to be found below in EDITORIAL WORK and PERSONAL MATERIAL. Fully half of the letters in this sub-series date from 1973 and 1974. This sub-series covers a broad spectrum of topics including columns by Joseph Breig, abortion, church-press relations, Father Andrew Greeley, G. K. Chesterton, Breig's trip to Israel, the beatification of Mother Seton, congratulations and greetings. Correspondents include his family (his sister, Sister Regina Clare, and his son James Breig, editor of the Evangelist in particular), several priests (especially Patrick Peyton CSC) and bishops, various Catholic organizations, the Vatican, politicians (Congressmen, Senators, Mayors of Cleveland, etc.), the Jewish Community in the United States (Sidney Z. Vincent, Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, etc.), officials from the State of Israel regarding his trip to Israel, friends (especially Genevieve Blatt, judge at the Commonwealth Court, Harrisburg, PA), the University of Notre Dame (including Fr. Hesburgh), and publishers of his books.

In his position as associate editor and columnist of the three northern Ohio Catholic papers of Toledo, Cleveland and Youngstown he also received many letters from readers. The readers expressed their approval or disagreement with the paper and his columns. He often answered these letters. Similar letters are found in the EDITORIAL WORK series under LETTERS RE SUBMISSIONS. There are also quite a few letters to and from colleagues inside the Universe Bulletin (especially editor Edgar Barmann) and editors from other American Catholic papers and magazines. There are also a number of letters from Breig to editors of the secular and Catholic press in which he expresses his opinion towards articles and columns that appeared in their publications.

Three folders of subject files complete this series. The first contains correspondence between Breig and Notre Dame about the donation of his papers to the Notre Dame Archives. This folder provides a good look at the donation process and the difficulties that went along with it. The next folder contains letters about Breig's writings while he was at the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph (1941-1945). The last folder is a collection of letters Breig received when he won the St. Francis de Sales Award in 1966.

The CHRONOLOGICAL FILE consists of all types of Breig documents dating from 1975 until November 1981. These documents were a second accession to the original shipment of papers to the Notre Dame Archives. The accession has been sorted into chronological order, but in general has been kept as it arrived at the Archives. Only the material dating before 1975, the Breig family genealogy (now in the PERSONAL MATERIAL series), and loose clippings (now in the WRITINGS and PERSONAL MATERIAL series) have been removed from this series and filed elsewhere.

There is a folder for every month of every year from 1975 until November 1981. At the end of each year there is also a folder with papers that could be connected to the year but not to a particular month. This series generally consists of correspondence, columns, articles, book reviews, etc. The nature of the correspondence is basically the same as described in the CORRESPONDENCE series. Breig corresponds with his family, his son James (assistant editor of the Evangelist), his sister Mary (Sister Regina Clare), his daughter Mary and her husband Terry (Brock), his cousin David Harley (West Virginia) and his cousin Ferd McKenzie (Dakota). Breig's correspondence with his son often deals with James' work as assistant editor of the Evangelist. Other private correspondence is also about his activities in his parish, with Breig's and his wife's friends, and with his fellow alumni from Notre Dame. Even though he retired in February 1975 this accession contains much correspondence with readers, clergy, editors of Catholic newspapers and magazines, and politicians. Abortion, homosexuals, and criticism and support of his opinions are among the topics of these letters.

This series also contains an abundance of manuscripts of columns. For the years before 1975 such manuscripts are found in the WRITINGS series. Breig wrote about various topics in religion, family, politics, sports, and nature. His articles for that period are mostly about religious subjects, and his book reviews are on books about journalism, sports, family, grammar, and religion. Breig repeatedly wrote about abortion, euthanasia, women in the Catholic church, artificial contraception, Humanae Vitae, busing, the death penalty, the Equal Rights Amendment, Archbishop Lefebvre, Father Andrew Greeley, Father Hans KÃĽng, the theory of evolution and the theory of creation, the speed limit, homosexuality, boxing, the Olympic Games, and political issues like the Near East conflict, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and the Vietnam war. Many columns contain Breig's defense of papal decisions and policy.