Appalled spectators of political life for the past eight years, many of America's major writers dream of better times – but fear disappointment. John Freeman hears literary voices of a nation on the brink of change Friday, 31 October 2008 Presidents and novelists are storytellers both, but it is a rare day in America when their narratives collide. It nearly happened in 1963, the year Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy hired (at the recommendation of William Styron) 37-year-old novelist Richard Yates as a speechwriter. The hard-drinking, chain-smoking author of Revolutionary Road did well in his first weeks, so well he was given a shot at drafting JFK's first major civil rights speech. Yates's words may not be read verbatim, he was warned, but the President would use some. The night Kennedy was to deliver the speech, Yates...
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