The Robert Yoakum papers document Yoakum's long writing career and his keen interest in the role of the media in reporting on an extensive range of topics including Congressional ethics, the process of running for public office, left- and right-wing organizations and individuals, and religion in American life.
The papers are arranged in five series: BIOGRAPHICAL, CORRESPONDENCE, WRITINGS, SUBJECT FILES, and VISUAL MATERIALS.
The BIOGRAPHICAL series includes materials from his youth in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois; education at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago; military service during World War II; papers from his time as a city editor in Paris; work at the World Veterans Foundation; and a year spent in London. Also included in this series are files Yoakum kept relating to his reminiscences about these life experiences, which he hoped to incorporate into a memoir.
CORRESPONDENCE includes letters to and from various colleagues and friends in the publishing world, and reflects the role of Yoakum's professional and social relationships with figures in the media, arts, and politics. Included are exchanges with fellow columnists (Art Buchwald, Russell Baker, and Dave Barry); literary agents (Pat Kavanagh and the Sterling Lord Agency); editors (Robert Gerdy, William Knapp, The New Yorker; Ashbel Green, Alfred A. Knopf; Pyke Johnson, Doubleday; Harold Evans and Tina Brown); as well as other writers (Roy Hoopes, Myra MacPherson), journalists (Alex Jones and Susan Tifft, Colin and Margaret Legum, Anthony Lewis), artists (Lauren Bacall, Artie Shaw and Evelyn Keyes, Moira Shearer, Robert Osborn), and political figures (Chester Bowles, Archibald Cox, Adam Yarmolinsky).
These files often include Yoakum's printouts of emails and notes about telephone conversations, as well as incoming and outgoing correspondence and news clippings (often including obituaries) about the subject that may be outside the date range of letters in the folder. In some cases, the letters cover many decades and include a mix of professional and social correspondence. Yoakum was an inveterate clipper of news stories, and kept an "A" list of people to whom he sent weekly clippings; the "B" and "C" lists received clippings less frequently.
Also included in this series are letters Yoakum received after an article he wrote on Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) was published in Modern Maturity, the American Association of Retired People (AARP) magazine. Reader response to his article led Yoakum to write a book on the topic, and to become one of the founders of the RLS Foundation.
Three folders concern Melesse Ayalew, an Ethiopian student who lived with the Yoakums in 1963, graduated from Brandeis University in political science, and returned to Ethiopia to work in government.
The WRITINGS series includes Columns and Articles, Speeches (including Speeches given by Yoakum and Speechwriting files), Book Reviews, and Books.
The Columns and Articles subseries contains clippings of Yoakum's columns and articles from the Daily Northwestern, the Herald Tribune, the London Sunday Times, other papers in which his column was syndicated, and periodicals; promotional and other materials such as correspondence related to the publications in which his writings were published, and with the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and Yoakum Features, the company he established to syndicate his own work. Also included are ideas for future columns and lists of correspondents to whom Yoakum sent clippings of various columns.
The Speeches subseries includes talks Yoakum gave regarding political satire, life as a humorist, and conflicts between the media and the law, to clubs, historical societies, media organizations, and at school commencement exercises. Included are copies of speeches, correspondence, and news clippings. The Speeches are arranged chronologically. The speechwriting section includes materials on various presidential campaigns, notably the 1960 race, when Yoakum served as a speechwriter for John F. Kennedy's campaign.
The Book Reviews subseries includes a few reviews Yoakum wrote, some related to the Dodd case specifically, and to ethics in American life more broadly.
The Books subseries consists primarily of materials for A Handbook for Candidates: Time-Tested Ploys for Bamboozling Voters, a book that Yoakum was co-writing with William Attwood concerning tips for candidates running for public office. Yoakum continued to work on the manuscript after Attwood's death in 1989, but the book was never published. Included are chapter notes and drafts, a manuscript, and background materials. Materials Yoakum was gathering for a possible memoir can be found under Reminiscences under the Biographical series. Also included is the manuscript for a European travel book from the late 1940s. There is no manuscript for Yoakum's Restless Legs Syndrome book, but relevant materials can be found in the Correspondence under RLS.
The SUBJECT FILES series includes, but is not limited to, files on two major projects related to Yoakum's writing: first, the Senator Thomas J. Dodd case, and second, the Left-Right, Right-Left files.
Senator Thomas Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, was investigated initially for his dealings with publicist Julius Klein, and then investigated and ultimately censured by the Senate Select Committee on Standards and Conduct (also known as the Senate Ethics Committee) for improper use of campaign contributions. The case was the first to appear before the six-member bipartisan committee since its establishment in 1964.
The Dodd files include background information, notes and clippings about the Senate Ethics Committee, and documents Yoakum's research and writings on the role of the press (particularly columnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, whose columns in 1966 first brought Dodd's actions to light), lack of reporting on the case by newspapers in Connecticut and elsewhere after the Pearson-Anderson columns and before the ethics committee hearings were announced, and the subsequent lawsuit brought by Dodd against Pearson.
Yoakum wrote a series of articles on the Dodd case which appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review and The New Republic.
The Left-Right, Right-Left files include Yoakum's notes and observations for possible future writings, literature and mailings from left- and right-wing organizations, and news clippings. Yoakum gathered much of this material for a book he planned to write on ethics in American life, which was unfinished. There is a greater quantity of files on right-wing groups and individuals than the corresponding files for left-wing groups and individuals.
Also of note in this series are materials relating to a news magazine which Yoakum hoped to start in the late 1950s, but which never progressed beyond the planning stage. Included is correspondence, a plan for the magazine, mock-up, and legal agreement.
Also included are files on various colleagues in the press, political figures, and topics on which Yoakum was collecting information for future articles or columns, such as the files on religion in American life, a topic in which Yoakum, a minister's son, took a particular interest.
The Bull Moose Party files document an informal organization of Yoakum's fellow writers and colleagues in the publishing world, including Art Buchwald, William "Bill" Attwood, Ralph Major, Leslie Midgely, and Stephen White. Begun in 1959 and taking its name from Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party, the tongue-in-cheek purpose of the latter day party was its anti-women's suffrage platform, but its general purpose was promoting camaraderie among like-minded colleagues.
The VISUAL MATERIALS series includes photographs, a watercolor, and a pencil drawing. Photographs include images from Sturgeon Bay, including a street scene and interior and exterior shots of Hope Congregational Church, where Yoakum's father served as pastor; an Associated Press image of Yoakum as city editor of the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune, a photo inscribed by Art Buchwald to Yoakum, images from Yoakum's military service during World War II, and snapshots of friends included with social correspondence. Also included are studio portraits of film actress Evelyn Keyes.
