Speechwriting, for Ill
Review of Unmasking the Klansman: The Double Life of Asa and Forrest Carter, by Dan T. Carter. Athens GA: NewSouth Books, 2023. Sunday marked the fifty-first anniversary of the most famous and …
Women’s Speech Anthology: Absurdly Late, But Worth the Wait
The first inkling that alighted on this male brain that women’s speeches had been hideously overlooked by innumerable speech anthologies over the decades and the centuries, came a couple of …
Yes, the world needs one more book on rhetoric
I don’t like books on rhetoric, generally. There are too damned many of them, for one thing. University of Richmond rhetoric prof Jerry Tarver donated his collection of “Elocution, Rhetoric …
A Rare Memoir from a Corporate Speechwriter
Review of Cross Bronx: A Writing Lifeby Peter Quinn (Fordham Press; 2022; 256 pages) Peter Quinn’s facility with language has helped him build an enviable reputation as a novelist and historian of …
Is This Book the New ‘West Wing’?
On a road trip with my wife last weekend, I listened to former President Obama Chief Speechwriter Cody Keenan’s new memoir, Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for …
“Undelivered”: Fascinating for everyone, essential for speechwriters
Some bosses still give speechwriters titles—Communications Director, Deputy Press Secretary—aimed at disguising the fact that someone else writes their speeches. Admitting the truth is more acceptable these days than it …
Words, for Good and Ill
Review of: Voices of History: Speeches that Changed the World by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Most speechwriters would likely not know the name Mettius Pompusianus, but perhaps they should. Mettius was one …
Corporate speechwriting, then and now
By the time he wrote his novel, Chronicles of Doodah, George Lee Walker was one disillusioned speechwriter. Having worked for Michigan Governors George Romney and William Milliken, President Gerald Ford, Ford …
The Oratory of a People
Review of: The Will of a People: A Critical Anthology of Great African American Speeches, edited by Richard W. Leeman and Bernard K. Duffy (2012). “A great speech,” wrote the noted …
“A Promised Land”: A Speechwriter’s Take
In the days when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was churning out books under his name just about every year, some people wondered how he could write so fast. “Ha. …