Robert Lehrman

Former White House chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore (1993–1995), Lehrman has written or co-written seven books, including several award-winning novels, and thousands of speeches for Democratic politicians, corporate and nonprofit CEOs, and celebrities.

In 1965 he entered the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he studied under Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Yates, taught rhetoric and speech, and in 1968 graduated with an M.F.A.

In 1988, Lehrman published Defectors (Arbor House, Morrow, 1988), a well-received novel for adults, set during the Cold War.

Moving to Washington, D.C., in 1987, Lehrman spent a year writing for the CEO of Fannie Mae, then became chief speechwriter first for Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX), and Democratic House Majority Whips William H. Gray (D-PA) and David Bonior (D-MI) before moving to the White House as Vice President Al Gore's first Chief Speechwriter.

Meanwhile, he has given workshops around the world, and, along with American University Professor Leonard Steinhorn, cofounded the commentary site PunditWire, a forum for speechwriters to escape anonymity through bylined essays about speech.

In 2016, SAGE Publishers, now CQ Press's parent company, decided to bring Speechwriter's Companion out in an expanded second edition.

Adding over a hundred pages, and broadening its scope in such areas as ethics, the book won a foreword by longtime Republican Senator Lamar Alexander.

Written and edited by Lehrman, along with British Professors Andrew S. Crines and David S. Moon, the book, released in 2016, with a Foreword by Bonior, won praise from academics.

Gillian Peele, Emeritus Professor in Politics at the University of Oxford, called the book "a powerful and impressive contribution to our understanding of the interlocking themes of oratory, rhetoric and leadership in the United States."

Juggling (Harper & Row, 1982) set in the 1960s about a high school soccer player and his first romance, became controversial because of its frankness about teenage life, but won wide praise for nuance and authenticity, winning an American Library Association Best Book award, in 1983 and many other honors.

He wrote a widely read series of cover stories for The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Magazine and his documentary scripts include Bradley Whitford's narration for Alliance for Justice award-winning 2007 film Quiet Revolution.

For over four decades Lehrman has been married to Dr. Susan Thaul, an epidemiologist whose distinguished career in public health saw her serve with the United States Senate, the Institute of Medicine, and, most recently, the Congressional Research Service.