Jimmy Carter's editor says he preferred 'peanut farmer language'

Caption

Steve Hochman speaks with GPB's Peter Biello at the Carter Center on Oct. 1, 2024.

Credit: Caio Jardim

After leaving office in 1981, former President Jimmy Carter continued to write and give speeches. But all writers, even former presidents, need editors. And for Carter, Steve Hochman filled that role. He was the Director of Research here at the Carter Center. He also managed President Carter's position as a university distinguished professor at Emory, which began in September 1982.

GPB's Peter Biello spoke with Hochman at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta on Carter's 100th birthday.

Peter Biello: Tell us how you first got hooked up with President Carter.

Steve Hochman: I went to work with President Carter on his first activity after he returned from office. He wanted to write his presidential memoirs and he needed someone to help him. But he wanted to do it himself. He didn't want a ghostwriter. He didn't want a team of researchers. But he did think he needed one who had experience in putting together a book. And I had been at the University of Virginia and research assistant to Dumas Malone, who was a Jefferson biographer and had won the Pulitzer Prize for his work. Well, I went to work for him. And one thing about President Carter: He wanted to be in control of the book. He made it clear I wasn't going to be a ghostwriter. In fact, he had a word processor in 1981 — that was very rare. Some secretaries had word processors, but not many writers. He controlled the manuscript at all times. If I wanted to make a suggestion, I would make the suggestion. But he was the one that had to enter it into the manuscript.

Peter Biello: Hmm. OK.

And so President Carter wasn't someone that needed particular help in getting the right word — not that I didn't suggest sometimes a slightly different word. He was a very clear writer and speaker. And in fact, he would say, "I write peanut farmer language." It — he wanted to be understood by the ordinary person. He didn't write for a sophisticated audience — although he thought that clear writing would also appeal to them. And it did. So I went to work for him. It turned out that writing a book on the presidency is very complicated, and I did help him with organization.

Peter Biello: Organization. I was wondering where, if he was in such control of this, where did you come in?

Steve Hochman: Yes, but research as well. Now, one thing about President Carter: Most all of his books are personal. They're books in which he plays a part. And, of course, who knows better what they did than the person that did it? Except sometimes, if you're enough years away, you start to forget. So as much as possible, I was a fact-checker as well as a researcher to give him material to work through. But President Carter was — had a remarkable memory. But as I have learned, 20 years ago, things you do, you don't remember very well. But he — he was good.

Peter Biello: And for some, writing memoirs is not always a "paint my portrait, warts and all" kind of scenario. How did President Carter approach writing about the things that may not have turned out so well for him?

Steve Hochman: President Carter is an incredibly honest person. And he did choose what to write about. That's the advantage of writing your own autobiography. Some things he left out actually would have been great if he — he talked about it. I was surprised to learn that — [learn] of some things later on that he had done and didn't mention. It's in a biography.

Peter Biello: Like what?

Steve Hochman: Like going to Africa. He was the first president — sitting president — to have an official visit to Africa and he was very proud of that. And he was greatly respected in Africa for that. And yet he didn't mention that in the book.

Peter Biello: Do you ever ask him why? Like, why not?

Steve Hochman: The fact is [...] he just decided that it was not something he wanted to deal with in detail. It was too complicated to get into African politics. And so he decided to focus on things that were the big stories. And did he talk about his problems? Yes. And you couldn't avoid that. You had to talk about Iran. He had to talk about the problems he had with the Soviet Union. But he did that. And so I would say he did a good job of telling his problems. He also explained why he had these problems, what he knew beforehand and why he made the decisions he did.

Peter Biello: You also helped him with his teaching. And while he was at Emory, he used to give a town hall. One in particular was meaningful to you, and that was the one he gave two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Can you tell us about what Carter said was meaningful to you?

Steve Hochman: Well, I will just say that he asked me after we had pretty much finished the book, to accompany him to Emory as his assistant and also to work with him at the Carter Center, creating the Carter Center. And Emory was a partner in creating the Carter Center. But he was a university distinguished professor at Emory. And I managed his schedule. In the early stages, I would always ask him, did he want to teach this class. But later on, he didn't want to be bothered with it. He let me set it up. If it was anything really controversial, yes, I would ask him. And for the most part, I created the schedule. I invited the faculty that would have lunch with him. I worked on which courses. I wrote briefing papers for him and made sure that it would be an interesting thing for him.

Well, one of the most important things he did at Emory, usually in September, was have a town hall meeting for the university. But it was particularly for first-year students. All the first-year students would get tickets and usually there were about 2,500 people that would come to these. The one that I particularly want to talk about was his 20th. And as he was driving up from Plains to come to Atlanta on 9/11, he had to make a decision about whether he would continue to Atlanta and whether he would do his work. And he decided, yes, he needed to. And he also went ahead with the schedule for the town hall meeting in which he said to the students, reassuring them, and also telling them that we needed to have American unity and that our nation would survive as it always had. Those are things he — It was covered by the American media. And also people were reassured through what he said.