The Judson Welliver Society is a

bipartisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing political parties find co ...

social club composed exclusively of former presidential

speechwriters A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches that will be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are employed by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors. They can also b ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The group is named after Judson C. Welliver, the "literary clerk" to President

Warren Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. ...

, usually credited as being the first presidential speechwriter. Group meetings are usually held after major presidential speeches, such as the

State of the Union The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...

. Active members have included

William Safire William Lewis Safire (; Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009Safire, William (1986). ''Take My Word for It: More on Language.'' Times Books. . p. 185.) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He w ...

(a Nixon writer who often hosted meetings),

Jack Valenti Jack Joseph Valenti (September 5, 1921 – April 26, 2007) was an American political advisor and lobbyist who served as a Special Assistant to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was also the longtime president of the Motion Picture Association ...

who was a veteran of the Johnson administration,

Pat Buchanan Patrick Joseph Buchanan (; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician, and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, an ...

(Nixon and Reagan),

David Gergen David Richmond Gergen (born May 9, 1942) is an American political commentator and former presidential adviser who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He is currently a senior political ...

(Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton),

Tony Snow Robert Anthony Snow (June 1, 1955 – July 12, 2008) was an American journalist, political commentator, anchor, columnist, musician, and the 25th White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush, from May 2006 until his resignatio ...

(speechwriter for George H. W. Bush and press secretary for George W. Bush),

Michael Waldman Michael A. Waldman is an American attorney and presidential speechwriter and political advisor, currently serving as the president of the Brennan Center for Justice, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonprofit law and policy inst ...

(Clinton), George Stephanopoulos (Clinton),

James Fallows James Mackenzie Fallows (born August 2, 1949) is an American writer and journalist. He is a former national correspondent for ''The Atlantic.'' His work has also appeared in '' Slate'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''The New York Review of Boo ...

(Carter), Chris Matthews (Carter), Hendrik Hertzberg (Carter),

Anthony R. Dolan Anthony R. Dolan (born in Norwalk, Connecticut, July 7, 1948) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan from March 1981 until the end of Reagan's second term in 1989.Michael Gerson Michael John Gerson (May 15, 1964 – November 17, 2022) was an American journalist and speechwriter. He was a neoconservative op-ed columnist for ''The Washington Post'', a Policy Fellow with One Campaign, a visiting fellow with the Center for ...

(George W. Bush), and

Clark Clifford Clark McAdams Clifford (December 25, 1906October 10, 1998) was an American lawyer who served as an important political adviser to Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. His official governme ...

, who wrote speeches for Harry Truman. At times the meetings had sixty persons in attendance. Other notables were writers Robert Hartmann, who worked for Gerald Ford, James Keogh who worked for Nixon, and

Theodore Sorensen Theodore may refer to: Places * Theodore, Alabama, United States * Theodore, Australian Capital Territory * Theodore, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Banana, Australia * Theodore, Saskatchewan, Canada * Theodore Reservoir, a lake in Saskatche ...

and

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a s ...

who worked for Kennedy.Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, ''Journals, 1951-2000'',600-601(Penguin Group 2007).

References

Executive Office of the President of the United States Clubs and societies in the United States {{prof-assoc-stub