Join us as we toast to the release of Jeff's book, "Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History”. The evening will provide an incredible opportunity for discussion with someone who has often been squarely in the "room where it happened".

Manny's never turns away anyone for lack of funds. To receive a complementary ticket just email the word "grapefruit" and the title of this event to darian@welcometomannys.com.

About Undelivered:

The seed of Undelivered was planted on Election Night, 2000, when Nussbaum, a 25-year-old speechwriter for Al Gore, and was left holding three drafts of a speech that was never delivered. This book is a result of a 20-year quest to find and reconstruct the circumstances around other historically-significant undelivered speeches. Hillary Clinton gave him her 2016 victory speech. The book also contains other, less-known ones like Emperor Hirohito’s attempt to apologize for WWII, an act that would have necessitated his abdication, and, at the height of Boston’s busing crisis in the mid-1970s, progressive mayor Kevin White’s speech defying a judge’s order to integrate South Boston High, a speech where he had an 11th hour change of heart. For the finance-minded, there’s a chapter on Mayor Beame’s speech declaring New York City bankrupt in 1975, and the drama of how that bankruptcy was averted. Nussbaum also includes Helen Keller's undelivered speech on women's suffrage (a riot stopped her from giving that one) and Emma Goldman's undelivered speech at her trial for starting a riot.

In total, there are 15 chapters covering about 20 speeches. In each chapter, Jeff recreates the moment in history where an alternate outcome was so likely that a speech was drafted to account for it, shares the previously-unseen speech, and describes what the speech demonstrated about the speechwriting process and leadership more broadly.

About Jeffrey Nussbaum:

Jeff Nussbaum was a senior speechwriter for President Joe Biden. He is the author of "Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History” which was released on May 10th, 2022. Prior to joining the Biden administration, Jeff served as a partner at the speechwriting and strategy firm West Wing Writers. He traveled with President Biden during the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign and previously wrote for Vice President Al Gore and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Jeff helped oversee speechwriting operations for the 2020 Democratic National Convention and was involved in the past six Democratic conventions. He has co-authored books with James Carville and former Senator Bob Graham and has served as a creative consultant for the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was raised in Weston, Massachusetts and is a graduate of Brown University.