“GHOST” WRITERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22338, 24 May 1947, Page 4

“GHOST” WRITERS

MEN BEHIND THE SCENES NEW YORK, April 24. “Ghost writing” for politicians was amusingly exposed when Mr. Deeley Nice, Republican candidate for Mayor of Baltimore, today repudiated a statement supposed to have been issued by him. It had been “ghost written” by Mr. Harry Levin, chairman of the State Tax Commission, who for years has written the public speeches of many prominent Republicans, including a former Governor of Maryland. Ghost writing has become so general in American political journalism that the most sought after ghost writers themselves employed a staff of deputy ghost writers to ghost write for them. Mrs. Roosevelt writes her own daily newspaper column, but even the late President Roosevelt—unlike Mr. Churchill, who writes his own speeches—was not above using a team of ghost writers, the most famous of whom was Judge Rosenman. President Truman similarly depends on a team of experts at the White House for inspiration. ’ . Tir , Among the diplomatic corps, in Washington the practice varies. The speeches by the British Ambassador, Lord Inverchapel, bear the authentic stamp of his eccentric personality, but the Australian Ambassador. Mr. N. J. Makin, depends on his legation staff.