Register of the Peter Robinson papers

Finding aid prepared by Jessica Lemieux
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
© 2019, 2021
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003
hoover-library-archives@stanford.edu


Title: Peter Robinson papers
Date (bulk): 1998-2003
Collection Number: 2004C58
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: English
Physical Description: 39 manuscript boxes, 2 audiocassette boxes, 1 computer disk box (17.3 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Drafts of the books by Peter Robinson, It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP (New York, 2000), and How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (New York, 2003), and correspondence and research materials used in their preparation. Includes sound recordings and transcripts of interviews of associates of Ronald Reagan.
Creator: Robinson, Peter, 1957-
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Access

The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Use

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Acquisition Information

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2004.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Peter Robinson papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Biographical Note

Peter M. Robinson was born in 1957 and grew up in upstate New York. He attended Dartmouth College, graduating summa cum laude in 1979. He went on to study politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University, from which he graduated in 1982.
Robinson spent six years in the White House, serving from 1982 to 1983 as chief speechwriter to Vice President George Bush and from 1983 to 1988 as special assistant and speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan. He wrote the historic Berlin Wall address in which President Reagan called on General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"
After the White House, Robinson attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and graduated with an MBA in 1990. Robinson then worked for Fox Television and subsequently for the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he served as the director of the Office of Public Affairs, Policy Evaluation, and Research.
Robinson joined the Hoover Institution in 1993. Robinson is is the Murdoch Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's video series program, Uncommon Knowledge™.
In addition to his work at the Hoover Institution, Robinson has published numerous essays and interviews. He edited Can Congress Be Fixed?: Five Essays on Congressional Reform (Hoover Institution Press, 1995). Robinson is the author of three books: How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (Regan Books, 2003); It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP, (Warner Books, 2000); and the best-selling business book Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA (Warner Books, 1994).

Scope and Content of Collection

The Peter Robinson papers contain the writings and research material related to two of Robinson's books: It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP, and How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. The collection is arranged in two series, Writings and Audiovisual Material.
The Writings series includes correspondence, notes, interview transcripts, background research material drafts, manuscript proofs related to the writing and production of Robinson's books.The series is divided into two subseries, one for each book.
The It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP subseries includes Robinson's background research, interviews, notes, and drafts relating to the history of the Republican party, his family's relationship to the party, and how demographics and political issues affected the party as a whole. Robinson traveled throughout the United States in order to gain as many perspectives as possible on the Republican party. Since the book was researched and the bulk of the text written in 1999, It's My Party provides a unique examination of the GOP just prior to the 2000 election.
The How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life subseries is comprised of drafts, manuscript proofs, research, correspondence, and extensive interviews documenting the life of Ronald Reagan, with a particular focus on the years he served as President. Written as a personal memoir of Robinson's time in the Reagan administration, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life contains reflections on Reagan's character and anecdotes from Robinson and several other prominent figures in the Reagan White House.
The Audiovisual Material series contains video recordings, sound recordings, and computer files related to Robinson's books. It is arranged by physical format. The video recordings primarily consist of interviews and television broadcasts relating to Ronald Reagan. The sound recordings include interviews conducted by Robinson as research for his books, including George W. Bush, Ed Meese, Dana Rohrabacher, Betsy Bayless, and Charlton Heston. Transcripts of the interviews are available in the Writings series. The computer files contain multiple drafts of the books and transcripts of the interviews.

Related Collection(s)

Uncommon Knowledge video tapes, Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Audiotapes
United States -- Politics and government -- 1981-1989
Reagan, Ronald
Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- )

 

Writings 1960-2003

Scope and Contents note

The Writings series contains interview transcripts, notes, background research, drafts, and published copies of Robinson's books It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP and How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. The series documents Robinson's writing process from proposal through research, conducting interviews, writing drafts, editing, and publication. The series is divided into two subseries, one for each book project. Original order was maintained in the files within each subseries. Of particular note are the transcripts of interviews Robinson conducted for each book, as they include prominent figures in the Republican party in the 1980s and 1990s.
 

It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP New York: Warner Books, 2000. 1998-2002

box 1, folder 1-5

Manuscripts 2000 February

box 1, folder 6-7

Proofs 2000 April

box 2, folder 1

Drafts 2000 January, undated

box 2, folder 4

Susan's markups 2000 February 4

box 2, folder 5-6

Copyedited manuscript 2000 February 4

box 3, folder 1

Dedication draft 2000 May 19-22

box 3, folder 2

Rudy Giuliani insert draft 2000 May

box 3, folder 3

Chapter Nine draft 2000 January 6

box 3, folder 4

Edited manuscript 2000 April 25

box 3, folder 5-9

Final research and fact checking 2000

box 4, folder 1

Fact-checking 2000

box 4, folder 2

Last look folder 2000

box 4, folder 3

Research 2000

box 4, folder 4-5

Final rewrites 2000

box 4, folder 6-8

Final research 2000

box 5, folder 1-4

Final research 2000

box 5, folder 5-9

Drafts 1999 December

box 6, folder 1-4

Drafts 2000 January

box 6, folder 5-6

Master copy (prior to edits) 1999 December

box 6, folder 7-8

Edited manuscript undated

box 7, folder 1-4

Drafts 2000 January

box 7, folder 5-8

Drafts undated

box 8, folder 1

Drafts undated

box 8, folder 2-3

Draft sent to John Ahearne 2000 January

box 8, folder 4-8

Ahearne's edits 2000 January

box 9, folder 1-5

Edited drafts 2000 January

box 9, folder 6

It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP New York: Warner Books, 2000. Hardcover edition 2000

box 10, folder 1-9

Background research 1999

box 10, folder 10

Paperback cover design 2000 October-November

box 11, folder 1-8

Notes and interview transcripts 1999

box 13, folder 1

Notes and interview transcripts 1999

box 13, folder 2-4

Background research 1999

box 13, folder 5

Research pending 1999

box 13, folder 6

Address book 1998

box 13, folder 7

Corrections 2000

box 13, folder 8-9

Correspondence 1999-2001

box 13, folder 10

Proposal undated

box 13, folder 11

Galleys 2000

box 13, folder 12

Reviews 2000

box 13, folder 13

Typos 2000

box 14, folder 1

File index undated

box 14, folder 2

Acknowledgements 2000

box 14, folder 3

Advertising 1999-2000

box 14, folder 4

Barnes and Noble 2000

box 14, folder 5

Endorsements 2000

box 14, folder 6

Flap copy 2000

box 14, folder 7-9

Marketing 2000-2002

box 14, folder 10

Manuscript 2000

box 14, folder 11

Parties 2000

box 14, folder 12

Press 2000

box 15, folder 1-6

Edited manuscript 2000 January

box 16, folder 1-3

Publicity 2000

box 16, folder 4

Cover 1999-2000

box 16, folder 5

Rewrites 2001-2002

box 16, folder 6-11

Chapter file 1998-1999

box 17, folder 1-8

Chapter file 1998-1999

box 18, folder 1-7

Chapter file 1999-2000

box 18, folder 8

Fair drafting 1999 December 19

box 19, folder 1

Fair drafting 1999

box 19, folder 2-7

Rough drafts 1999

box 20, folder 1-2

Rough draft 1999

box 20, folder 3

Manacek's edits 2000

box 20, folder 4-5

Annotated draft undated

box 20, folder 6

Master copy 2000 January

box 21, folder 1-3

Master copy 2000 January

box 21, folder 4

Contract 1999

box 21, folder 5-7

Returned manuscript 2001 April 23

 

How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. New York: Regan Books, 2003. 1960-2004

box 22, folder 1-5

Initial proposal and correspondence 2001

box 23, folder 1-9

Research subject files, A-L 1960-2004

box 24, folder 1-12

Research subject files, M-W 1960-2002

box 25, folder 1-4

Final Research 2003

box 25, folder 5

Interviews, Master list 2002

box 25, folder 6-8

Interviews, A-D 2002-2003

box 26, folder 1-9

Interviews, C-W 2002

box 27, folder 1-6

Interviews with Art Laffer, Ed Meese, Lyn Nofziger, Michael Reagan, Dana Rohrabacher 2002

box 28, folder 1-8

Chapter File, Chapter 1-2 2002

box 29, folder 1-9

Chapter File, Chapter 2-3 2002

box 30, folder 1-9

Chapter File, Chapter 3-4 2003

box 31, folder 1-9

Chapter file, Chapter 5-8 2002-2003

box 32, folder 1-9

Chapter file, chapters 9-11 and epilogue 2002-2003

box 32, folder 10

Miscellaneous research 2003

box 33, folder 1

Miscellaneous research 2003

box 33, folder 2-5

Edited draft 2002-2003

box 33, folder 6-8

Proofed draft 2003 March 5-12

box 34, folder 1

First notes and proposal undated

box 34, folder 2

Corrected draft 2003 March 3

box 34, folder 3-6

Chapter edits and Cal comments 2003 February-June

box 34, folder 7-8

Revised chapters 2002-2003

box 35, folder 1-8

Revised chapters 1-8 2002-2003

box 36, folder 1-9

Revised chapters 9-10 2003

box 37, folder 1

Peter Robinson's final proofing and fact checking 2003

box 37, folder 2-3

Lydia's final proofing and fact checking 2003

box 37, folder 4-5

Final proofs sent by publisher 2003

box 37, folder 6

Galleys 2003 May 21

box 38, folder 1

Edits 2003 March-April

box 38, folder 2-3

Manuscript inserts undated

box 38, folder 5

Final comments by Clark Judge 2003 [April]

box 38, folder 6

Peter Robinson final proofing and fact checking 2003

box 39, folder 1-3

Galleys 2003 May

box 39, folder 4-5

Proofs 2003 May 23

box 39, folder 6

Documents regarding "Tear Down this Wall" speech 2003 June

box 39, folder 7

Cover mock-up undated

box 39, folder 8

Motorcade gift certificate 1987

box 39, folder 9

How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. New York: Regan Books, 2003. Hardcover edition, marked with edits for paperback edition 2003

 

Audiovisual material 1999-2002

Scope and Contents note

The Audiovisual material series is composed of sound recordings, video recordings, and computer files related to the research and production of Robinson's books.The series is organized by physical format, then by book project.
 

Videorecordings 2003 undated

box 12

"Tear Down This Wall," FOX news, 1 VHS videocassette undated

box 12

"The Real Reagan," dub from television, 1 VHS videocassette undated

box 12

"The Real Reagan," FOX news, 1 VHS videocassette undated

box 12

"700 Club" Episode 251-03, 1 VHS videocassette 2003 September 8

box 12

"How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life" C-SPAN Videotape 177890, 1 VHS videocassette 2003 August 6

box 12

"Television and the Presidency Hours 1-2" FOX News, 1 VHS videocassette undated

box 12

"Television and the Presidency Hours 3-4" FOX News, 1 VHS videocassette undated

box 12

"Tear Down This Wall" 15th Anniversary Party, 3 VHS videocassettes undated

 

Sound recordings 1999-2002

box 40

It's My Party interviews, 11 audiocassettes and 13 mini audiocassettes 1999-2000

box 40

It's My Party publicity Wisconsin Public radio appearance, 2 audiocassettes 2000

box 40

How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life interviews, 24 audiocassettes and 11 minicassettes 2002

box 42

How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life interviews, 9 minicassettes 2002

box 41

How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life interviews, 11 audiocassettes and 2 minicassettes 2002

 

Computer files 1999-2002

box 42

It's My Party interviews and drafts, 27 3.5 inch diskettes 1999-2000

box 42

How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life interviews and drafts, 34 3.5 inch computer diskettes 2002

box 41

How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life interview transcripts, 9 3.5 inch computer diskettes 2002