(X) Reagan as Author
Besides from his oratory skills and speech writing skills, President
Reagan was an avid storyteller and writer. The books in this section illustrate
Reagan private writings as well as his official autobiographies. Two volumes gives
insight both Reagan's personal and professional views on life and politics.
His personal writings demonstrate his compelling story writing abilities which
not only include letters but also short fiction, poetry and sport stories. His
personal visions for the country’s future which he would implement as president
can be seen through the numerous newspaper articles he wrote, and radio commentaries
he made on public foreign and domestic policy issues in the late 1970s. Reagan would
write two thirds of the Radio addresses and commentaries that he presented. Many of these
writing were compiled and included in Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of
Ronald Reagan That Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America.
Well known were the personal anecdotes and stories Reagan told throughout his political
career and presidency, but the extent and number of these stories Reagan wrote was
not known until recently which includes 650 of them from the late 1970s. The best
of these personal anecdotes are compiled in Stories in his own hand; the everyday
wisdom of Ronald Reagan. Included in this section are also intimate letters he wrote
to First Lady Nancy Reagan compiled in I love you, Ronnie; the letters of Ronald Reagan
to Nancy Reagan. These letters give insight into the loving relationship and partnership
the first couple had.
Bibliography
2004
Reagan, Ronald; Harrison, Maureen and Steve Gilbert,eds. The speeches of Ronald Reagan.
Carlsbad, Calif. : Excellent Books, 2004. 150 p. ; 22 cm.
Reagan, Ronald. Reagan's path to victory :
the shaping of Ronald Reagan's vision : selected writings. Edited with an
introduction and commentary by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, Martin Anderson ;
with a foreword by George P. Shultz. New York : Free Press, 2004.
xx, 538 p. ; 24 cm. + 1 sound disc (CD)
Reagan, Ronald; Reagan, Michael and James D.Denney,eds.
In the words of Ronald Reagan :
the wit, wisdom, and eternal optimism of America's 40th president.
Nashville, Tenn. : Nelson Books, 2004. xiii, 208 p. : ill. ; 18 cm.
2003
Prados, John. The White House tapes :
eavesdropping on the President. New York : The New Press : Distributed by W. W. Norton,
2003. xviii, 331 p. : facsims. ; 25 cm.
Contents: Franklin D. Roosevelt -- Harry S. Truman -- Dwight D. Eisenhower --
John F. Kennedy -- Lyndon B. Johnson -- Richard M. Nixon -- Gerald R. Ford -- Ronald Reagan.
Includes eight sound discs (digital ; 4 3/4 in.) of secret recordings made by
eight U.S. presidents, and one sound disc (digital ; 4 3/4 in.)
of a recording from the radio documentary "White House tapes: the President
calling.".
Reagan, Ronald; Strober, Deborah H. and Gerald S. Strober, eds.
The Reagan presidency : an oral history of the era. Washington, D.C. : Brassey's,
1st ed., rev. ed., 2003. xii, 631 p. ; 23 cm.
Reagan, Ronald. Dear Americans :
letters from the desk of President Ronald Reagan. Edited, with introduction and
commentary, by Ralph E. Weber, editor ; Ralph A. Weber, associate editor.
New York : Doubleday, 1st ed., 2003. 372 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.
Ronald Reagan. Reagan : a life in letters. edited, with an introduction and '
commentary by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, Martin Anderson ; with a foreword by George P. Shultz.
New York : Free Press, 2003. xx, 934 p. ; 24 cm.
2001
Reagan, Ronald. Stories in his own hand; the everyday wisdom of Ronald Reagan.
Edited with an introduction and commentary by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson,
Martin Anderson ; foreword by George P. Shultz. New York : Free Press, 2001. xv,
123 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.
Ronald Reagan loved to tell stories. Sometimes he used them to break the ice, or to prove a point, but very often he used them to inspire, to uplift, and to remind his listeners of what matters most in life. Recently, in the archives of the Reagan Library, researcher Kiron Skinner unearthed a trove of handwritten Reagan manuscripts from the late 1970s, over 650 in all, which included some priceless examples of Reagan's storytelling abilities. Stories in His Own Hand reproduces the best of these deeply personal anecdotes.
Skinner, along with longtime Reagan aides and scholars Annelise and Martin Anderson, has carefully documented the extent of Reagan's manuscripts, which originated as radio transcripts. Earlier, in the bestselling Reagan, In His Own Hand, the editors compiled a broad range of Reagan's policy-oriented essays from this collection, showing an astonishing breadth of vision concerning nearly every issue he would face as president. Here they reveal a different Ronald Reagan: not the political but the personal man, not the
executive but the teacher.
Here is Reagan on men and women, life and death, family and friends. Here is a man who loved to tell a story to make us all stop, listen, and think about what it means to be human.
Reagan, Ronald. Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan That
Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America.
Until Alzheimer's disease wreaked its gradual destruction, Ronald Reagan was an inveterate writer. He wrote not only letters, short fiction, poetry, and sports stories, but speeches, newspaper articles, and radio commentary on public policy issues, both foreign and domestic.
Most of Reagan's original writings are pre-presidential. From 1975 to 1979 he gave more than 1,000 daily radio broadcasts, two-thirds of which he wrote himself. They cover every topic imaginable: from labor policy to the nature of communism, from World War II to the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, from the future of Africa and East Asia to that of the United States and the world. They range from highly specific arguments to grand philosophy to personal stories.
Even those who knew him best were largely unaware of Reagan's output. George Shultz, as he explains in the Foreword, was surprised when he first saw the manuscripts, but on reflection he really was not surprised at all. Here is definitive proof that Ronald Reagan was far more than a Great Communicator of other people's ideas. He was very much the author of his own ideas, with a single vision that he pursued relentlessly at home and abroad.
Reagan, In His Own Hand presents this vision through Reagan's radio writings as well as other writings selected from throughout his life: short stories written in high school and college, a poem from his high school yearbook, newspaper articles, letters, and speeches both before and during the presidency. It offers many surprises, beginning with the fact that Reagan's writings exist in such size and breadth at all. While he was writing batches and batches of radio addresses, Reagan was also traveling the country, collaborating on a newspaper column, giving hundreds of speeches, and planning his 1980 campaign. Yet the wide reading and deep research self-evident here suggest a mind constantly at work. The selections are reproduced with Reagan's own edits, offering a unique window into his thought processes.
These writings show that Reagan had carefully considered nearly every issue he would face as president. When he fired the striking air-traffic controllers, many thought that he was simply seizing an unexpected opportunity to strike a blow at organized labor. In fact, as he wrote in the '70s, he was opposed to public-sector unions using strikes. There has been much debate as to whether he deserves credit for the end of the cold war; here, in a 1980 campaign speech draft, he lays out a detailed vision of the grand strategy that he would pursue in order to encourage the Soviet system to collapse of its own weight, completely consistent with the policies of his presidency. Furthermore, in 1984, Reagan drafted comments he would make to Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko at a critical meeting that would eventually lead to history's greatest reductions in armaments.
Ronald Reagan's writings will change his reputation even among some of his closest allies and friends. Here, in his own hand, Reagan the thinker is finally fully revealed.
2000
Reagan, Nancy; Reagan, Ronald. I love you, Ronnie; the letters of Ronald Reagan
to Nancy Reagan. 1st ed. New York : Random House, 2000. viii, 189 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
1992
Reagan, Ronald. An American life. New York : Pocket Books, 1990; 1992.
748 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. (Also in Memoirs)
|
