Items19The creator’s order
  1. 1Alexander HamiltonAlexander HamiltonBorn 11 Jan 1755The earliest well-documented case of a ghostwriter for a president. Washington began his 1796 Farewell Address from a draft James Madison had prepared in 1792, then sent it to Hamilton, who rewrote it extensively; surviving drafts let readers trace who wrote which passages.0i
  2. 2Judson WelliverJudson WelliverBorn 13 Aug 1870A former newspaper reporter, Welliver joined Warren Harding's staff in 1921 as a "literary clerk" and is usually counted as the first White House speechwriter. Former presidential speechwriters still meet in a society named after him.0i
  3. 3Samuel RosenmanSamuel RosenmanBorn 13 Feb 1896Rosenman, a New York judge and Roosevelt's longest-serving writer, drafted the 1932 acceptance speech that pledged "a new deal for the American people". He later became the first official White House Counsel and edited Roosevelt's public papers, which shaped how those speeches were preserved.0i
  4. 4Robert E. SherwoodRobert E. SherwoodA Pulitzer-winning playwright, Sherwood joined Rosenman and Harry Hopkins on Roosevelt's wartime speeches, including the 1940 "arsenal of democracy" fireside chat. His book Roosevelt and Hopkins describes how drafts moved between the three and the president, a rare inside account of collaborative…0i
  5. 5Emmet John HughesEmmet John HughesA Time-Life journalist, Hughes wrote Eisenhower's 1952 campaign pledge "I shall go to Korea" and the 1953 "Chance for Peace" speech on the cost of the arms race. His 1963 memoir The Ordeal of Power was unusually critical of the president he had served.0
  6. 6Malcolm MoosMalcolm MoosBorn 19 Apr 1916Moos, a political scientist, drafted Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address with staff writer Ralph Williams, and drafts found in 2010 show the "military-industrial complex" warning took shape in their work before Eisenhower revised it. He later became president of the University of Minnesota.0i
  7. 7Ted SorensenTed SorensenBorn 8 May 1928Sorensen, Kennedy's counsel and closest writer for eleven years, drafted the 1961 inaugural address and the 1963 American University speech on peace. How much of "ask not what your country can do for you" was his or Kennedy's remains disputed; Sorensen himself kept the question open.0i
  8. 8Richard N. GoodwinRichard N. GoodwinBorn 7 Dec 1931Goodwin wrote Lyndon Johnson's 1964 University of Michigan speech that named the "Great Society" and, in a single night, the March 1965 "We Shall Overcome" address urging Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. Both texts are well documented as primarily his drafts.0i
  9. 9Pat BuchananPat BuchananBorn 2 Nov 1938Before his own campaigns, Buchanan was a Nixon writer and the author of Spiro Agnew's November 1969 Des Moines speech attacking network television news. It began a long conservative argument about media bias, and shows how a writer could set a political theme as well as phrase it.0i
  10. 10William SafireWilliam SafireSafire gave Agnew "nattering nabobs of negativism" and wrote the never-delivered 1969 statement "In Event of Moon Disaster" for Nixon. He went on to a long New York Times column and On Language, so his habits as a phrase-maker can be read in public for decades after.0i