BUCKLEY, William F(rank) Jr. 1925-

PERSONAL: Born November 24, 1925, in New York, NY; son of William Frank (a lawyer and oilman) and Aloise (Steiner) Buckley; married Patricia Austin Taylor, July 6, 1950; children: Christopher Taylor. Education: Attended University of Mexico, 1943-44; Yale University, B.A. (with honors), 1950. Politics: Republican. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Office—National Review, Inc., 215 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10016-6023.

CAREER: Yale University, New Haven, CT, instructor in Spanish, 1947-51; affiliated with Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) in Mexico, 1951-52; American Mercury (magazine), New York, NY, associate editor, 1952; freelance writer and editor, 1952-55; National Review (magazine), New York, NY, founder, president, and editor-in-chief, 1955-90, editor-at-large, 1990—; syndicated columnist, 1962—; host of Firing Line (weekly television program), 1966-99. Conservative Party candidate for mayor of New York City, 1965; member of Advisory Commission on Information, U.S. Information Agency, 1969-72; public member of U.S. delegation to United Nations, 1973. Lecturer, New School for Social Research (now New School University), 1967-68; Froman Distinguished Professor, Russell Sage College, 1973. Chair of the board, Starr Broadcasting Group, Inc., 1969-78. Military service: U.S. Army, 1944-46; became second lieutenant.

MEMBER: Council on Foreign Relations, Century Club, Mont Pelerin Society, New York Yacht Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Freedom Award, Order of Lafayette, 1966; George Sokolsky Award, American Jewish League against Communism, 1966; Best Columnist of the Year Award, 1967; University of Southern California Distinguished Achievement Award in Journalism, 1968; Liberty Bell Award, New Haven County Bar Association, 1969; Emmy Award, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, 1969, for Firing Line; Man of the Decade Award, Young Americans for Freedom, 1970; Cleveland Amory Award, TV Guide, 1974, for best interviewer/interviewee on television; fellow, Sigma Delta Chi, 1976; Bellarmine Medal, 1977; Americanism Award, Young Republican National Federation, 1979; Carmel Award, American Friends of Haifa University, 1980, for journalism excellence; American Book Award for Best Mystery (paperback), 1980, for Stained Glass; New York University Creative Leadership Award, 1981; Lincoln Literary Award, Union League, 1985; Shelby Cullom Davis Award, 1986; Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award, 1989; Julius Award for Outstanding Public Service, University of Southern California School of Public Administration, 1990; Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1991; Gold Medal Award, National Institute of Social Sciences, 1992. Honorary degrees: L.H.D. from Seton Hall University, 1966, Niagara University, 1967, Mount Saint Mary's College, 1969, University of South Carolina, 1985, Converse College, 1988, and University of South Florida, 1992, Adelphi University, 1995, Yale University, 2000; LL.D. from St. Peter's College, 1969, Syracuse University, 1969, Ursinus College, 1969, Lehigh University, 1970, Lafayette College, 1972, St. Anselm's College, 1973, St. Bonaventure University, 1974, University of Notre Dame, 1978, New York Law School, 1981, and Colby College, 1985; D.Sc.O. from Curry College, 1970; Litt.D. from St. Vincent College, 1971, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1973, Alfred University, 1974, College of William and Mary, 1981, William Jewell College, 1982, Albertus Magnus College, 1987, College of St. Thomas, 1987, Bowling Green State University, 1987, Coe College, 1989, Saint John's University (Minnesota), 1989, and Grove City College (Pennsylvania), 1991.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom," Regnery (Washington, DC), 1951.

(With L. Brent Bozell) McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Meaning, Regnery (Washington, DC), 1954.

Up from Liberalism, Obolensky, 1959.

Rumbles Left and Right: A Book about Troublesome People and Ideas, Putnam (New York, NY), 1963.

The Unmaking of a Mayor, Viking (New York, NY), 1966.

The Jeweler's Eye: A Book of Irresistible Political Reflections, Putnam (New York, NY), 1968.

(Author of introduction) Edgar Smith, Brief against Death, Knopf (New York, NY), 1968.

(Author of introduction) Will Mrs. Major Go to Hell?: The Collected Work of Aloise Buckley Heath, Arlington House (New York, NY), 1969.

David Franke, compiler, Quotations from Chairman Bill: The Best of William F. Buckley Jr., Arlington House, 1970.

The Governor Listeth: A Book of Inspired Political Revelations, Putnam (New York, NY), 1970.

Cruising Speed: A Documentary, Putnam (New York, NY), 1971.

Inveighing We Will Go, Putnam (New York, NY), 1972.

Four Reforms: A Guide for the Seventies, Putnam (New York, NY), 1973.

United Nations Journal: A Delegate's Odyssey, Putnam (New York, NY), 1974.

Execution Eve and Other Contemporary Ballads, Putnam (New York, NY), 1975.

Airborne: A Sentimental Journey, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1976.

A Hymnal: The Controversial Arts, Putnam (New York, NY), 1978.

Atlantic High: A Celebration, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1982.

Overdrive: A Personal Documentary, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1983.

Right Reason, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1985.

Racing through Paradise: A Pacific Passage, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

On the Firing Line: The Public Life of Our Public Figures, Random House (New York, NY), 1989.

Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe to Our Country, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.

Windfall: End of the Affair, Random House (New York, NY), 1992.

In Search of Anti-Semitism, Continuum (New York, NY), 1992.

Happy Days Were Here Again, Random House (New York, NY), 1993.

Buckley: The Right Word, edited by Samuel S. Vaughan, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1997.

(Author of foreword) Ernest W. Lefever, The Irony of Virtue: Ethics and American Power, Westview Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(Author of introduction) Lee Edwards and William E. Simon, The Power of Ideas: The Heritage Foundation at Twenty-five Years, Jameson Books, 1998.

Let Us Talk of Many Things: The Collected Speeches of William F. Buckley Jr., Forum (Roseville, CA), 2000.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall, John Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2004.

Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography, Regnery (Washington, DC), 2004.

FICTION

The Temptation of Wilfred Malachey (juvenile), Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1985.

Brothers No More (novel), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1995.

The Redhunter: A Novel Based on the Life of Senator Joe McCarthy, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1999.

Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2000.

Elvis in the Morning, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2001.

Nuremberg: The Reckoning, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2002.

Getting it Right (novel), Regnery (Washington, DC), 2003.

NOVELS; "BLACKFORD OAKES" SERIES

Saving the Queen, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1976.

Stained Glass (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978.

Who's on First, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1980.

Marco Polo, If You Can, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1982.

The Story of Henri Tod, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1984.

See You Later, Alligator, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1985.

High Jinx, Doubleday, 1986.

Mongoose, RIP (also see below), Random House (New York, NY), 1988.

Tucker's Last Stand, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.

A Very Private Plot, Morrow (New York, NY), 1994.

The Blackford Oakes Reader, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1994.

OTHER

(Editor with others) The Committee and Its Critics: A Calm Review of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Putnam (New York, NY), 1962.

(Editor) Odyssey of a Friend: Whittaker Chambers' Letters to William F. Buckley Jr., 1954-1961, Putnam (New York, NY), 1970.

(Editor) Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?: American Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century, Bobbs-Merrill (New York, NY), 1970, revised edition published as Keeping the Tablets: Modern American Conservative Thought, Perennial Library (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor) The Lexicon: A Cornucopia of Wonderful Words for the Inquisitive Word Lover, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1998.

Contributor to books, including Racing at Sea, Van Nostrand (New York, NY), 1959; George B. DeHuzar, editor, The Intellectuals: A Conservative Portrait, Free Press (New York, NY), 1960; F. S. Meyer, editor, What Is Conservatism?, Holt (New York, NY), 1964; Dialogues in Americanism, Regnery (Washington, DC), 1964; Edward D. Davis, editor, The Beatles Book, Cowles, 1968; S. Endleman, editor, Violence in the Streets, Quadrangle (New York, NY), 1968; R. Campbell, editor, Spectrum of Catholic Attitudes, Bruce Publishing, 1969; Great Ideas Today Annual, 1970, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago, IL), 1970; Fritz Machlup, editor, Essays on Hayek, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1976; and Stained Glass (play; based on Buckley's novel; produced in Louisville, KY, 1989), S. French (New York, NY), 1989.

Author of syndicated column "On the Right," 1962—. Contributor to Esquire, Saturday Review, Harper's, Atlantic, Playboy, New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and other publications.

Beinecke Library at Yale University houses Buckley's correspondence since 1951 and material concerning the National Review.

SIDELIGHTS: William F. Buckley, Jr., is one of the most recognized and articulate spokesmen for American political conservatives. As host of his television program Firing Line, in the pages of National Review, the magazine he founded, and through the books and syndicated columns he writes, Buckley has argued throughout his career for individual liberty, the free market, and the traditional moral values of Western culture. His eloquence, wit, and appealing personal style have made him palatable even to many of his political opponents. "The Buckley substance," a writer for Time reported, "is forgiven for the Buckley style."

Buckley's writings are considered instrumental to the phenomenal growth of the U.S. conservative movement in the second half of the twentieth century. In the 1950s, when Buckley first appeared on the scene, conservatism was a peripheral presence on the national political spectrum. But in 1980 conservative voters elected Ronald Reagan, a longtime reader of Buckley's National Review, as president of the United States. "When the tide of intellectual and political history seemed headed inexorably leftward," Morton Kondracke wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "Mr. Buckley had the temerity to uphold the cause of Toryism. He and his magazine nurtured the movement . . . and gave it a rallying point and sounding board as it gradually gained the strength and respectability to win the Presidency. Conservatism is not far from the dominant intellectual force in the country today, but neither is liberalism. There is now a balance between the movements, a permanent contest, and Mr. Buckley deserves credit for helping make it so."

Buckley first came to public attention in 1951 when he published God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom," an attack against his alma mater, Yale University. The book accuses Yale of fostering values—such as atheism and collectivism—which are an anathema to the school's supporters. Further, Buckley claims that Yale stifles the political freedom of its more conservative students. Those students who spoke out against the liberal views of their professors were often ostracized. The book's charges stemmed from Buckley's own experiences while attending Yale, where his views on individualism, the free market, and communism found little support among liberal academics.

God and Man at Yale raised a storm of controversy as Yale faculty members denounced the charges made against them. Some reviewers joined in the denunciation. McGeorge Bundy, writing in the Atlantic Monthly, called the book "dishonest in its use of facts, false in its theory, and a discredit to its author." Peter Viereck agreed with Buckley that "more conservatism and traditional morality" were needed at universities and wrote in the New York Times that "this important, symptomatic, and widely held book is a necessary counterbalance. However, its Old Guard antithesis to the outworn Marxist thesis is not the liberty security synthesis the future cries for."

His position as a right-wing spokesman was vastly strengthened in 1955 when Buckley founded National Review, a magazine of conservative opinion. In a statement of purpose published in the magazine's first issue, Buckley stated: "The profound crisis of our era is, in essence, the conflict between the Social Engineers, who seek to adjust mankind to conform with scientific utopias, and the disciples of Truth, who defend the organic moral order." At the time of the magazine's founding, Richard Brookhiser recalled in National Review's thirtieth anniversary issue that "the forces of conservatism in American thinking were insignificant."

With the growth of the conservative movement, National Review eventually boasted a circulation of over 100,000, including some highly influential readers. Former president Ronald Reagan, for example, declared National Review his favorite magazine. Speaking at the magazine's thirtieth anniversary celebration in 1985—a celebration attended by such notables as Charlton Heston, Tom Selleck, Jack Kemp, and Tom Wolfe—Reagan remarked: "If any of you doubt the impact of National Review's verve and attractiveness, take a look around you this evening. The man standing before you now was a Democrat when he picked up his first issue in a plain brown wrapper; and even now, as an occupant of public housing, he awaits as anxiously as ever his biweekly edition—without the wrapper."

Buckley presents a fictionalized account of the founding of the National Review in his 2003 novel Getting It Right. Following the rise of author Ayn Rand and her Objectivism philosophy as it caught fire with many mid-century intellectuals, Buckley also weaves the radical John Birch Society and that organization's response to the Communist scare into a novel that a First Things contributor dubbed "fascinating and informative." Noting the novel's strongly factual basis—Buckley footnotes his fiction—Library Journalcontributor Barbara Conaty recommended Getting It Right for followers of Buckley's novels, adding that the author's "writing is so polished that he could turn the Yellow Pages into a spy novel or the federal budget into a sparkling memoir."

In addition to his writing and editing for National Review, Buckley has also contributed a syndicated column, "On the Right," to 250 newspapers two times weekly, as well as articles of opinion for various national magazines. Many of these columns and articles have been published in book-length collections. These shorter pieces display Buckley's talent for political satire. John P. Roche of the New York Times Book Review, critiquing Buckley's articles collected in Execution Eve and Other Contemporary Ballads, claimed that "no commentator has a surer eye for the contradictions, the hypocrisies, the pretensions of liberal and radical pontiffs . . . even when you wince, reading Buckley is fun."

Happy Days Were Here Again, Buckley's 1993 collection, is a comprehensive primer of his ideas. It contains more than 120 articles and addresses written between 1985 and 1993. John Grimond commented in the New York Times Book Review that Buckley is "eloquent" on the subjects of anti-communism, conservatism, sailing, and illegitimacy. Yet, Grimond continued: "It is a pity his range is not wider. A columnist needs to be able to say something interesting on many more issues than these if he is to delight his readers as much as himself. . . . Especially among the articles in which he is supposedly appreciating others, the self-serving references to himself occur with tedious frequency. The strongest single quality to emerge from this book is not percipience or wit; it is vanity."

Buckley again showed his willingness to confront flaws in the conservative ranks with his book In Search of Anti-Semitism. It grew out of a special issue of National Review—December 30, 1991—in which he explored the subject of anti-Semitism in depth. Furthermore, he criticized two friends and conservative brethren, Joseph Sobran and Pat Buchanan, for anti-Semitic attitudes and remarks. The book is comprised of Buckley's original article, comment from readers, and additional comment from Buckley. "Leave it to William Buckley to see right to the heart of a complex issue," declared Jacob Neusner in National Review. "Instead of assuming that 'we all know' what anti-Semitism is, he takes up the burden of sorting matters out. This he does with wit, insight, common sense—and unfeigned affection for the Jews and appreciation of what the State of Israel stands for. . . . In sorting matters out with the obvious affection and respect for the Jews and Judaism that this book shows, Buckley should win from those most affected . . . the trust that is needed so that people can stop choosing up sides and start sorting out their conflicts—and resolving them." New York Times Book Review contributor Nathan Glazer also praised the book as "fascinating reading: some of our most skillful, subtle and elegant conservative analysts of political trends can be read here, often in private correspondence with Mr. Buckley. He evokes very good letters—in part because he is such a good writer and letter-writer himself."

In other books, Buckley turns from politics to his personal life. Cruising Speed: A Documentary is a diary-like account of a typical Buckley week. Overdrive: A Personal Documentary follows a similar format. Because of the many activities in which he is typically engaged, and the social opportunities afforded by his political connections and inherited wealth, Buckley's life makes fascinating reading. And he unabashedly shares it with his readers, moving some reviewers to criticize him. Nora Ephron, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called Overdrive "an astonishing glimpse of a life of privilege in America today." She complained that "it never seems to cross [Buckley's] mind that any of his remarks might be in poor taste, or his charm finite." And yet Carolyn See of the Los Angeles Times believed that while the portrait Buckley may desire to paint of himself in Overdrive "is a social butterfly, a gadabout, a mindless snob (or so he would have us believe). . . . Buckley shows us a brittle, acerbic, duty-bound, silly, 'conservative' semi-fudd, with a heart as vast and varicolored and wonderful to watch as a 1930s jukebox."

In 1997 Buckley continued in the autobiographical mode with Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith. The book represents a return to the subject that occupied the author in his first publication, 1951's God and Man at Yale: the role of religion in American public life. The first chapters are narratives of Buckley's Catholic boyhood, but later chapters turn to a more argumentative mode, asserting that multiculturalism has replaced spirituality, and defending the concept of sin as useful for instilling a sense of social responsibility which Buckley believes U.S. society lacks. The book was received with ideologically polarized reviews. Houston Chronicle religion writer Richard Vara called Nearer, My God "engaging reading," praising it for the "vigorous questioning and debate that courses throughout." In the New York Times Book Review Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote, "what best invites the reader's belief is the joy with which Buckley goes about his business in this 'Autobiography of Faith,'" but said that "the problem, at least for the nonbelieving reader, is that where almost every logical contradiction arises, we are asked simply to accept what we can't understand."

When not writing about politics or sailing, Buckley has also found time to pen a series of bestselling espionage novels featuring C.I.A. agent Blackford Oakes. The "arch and politically sophisticated" novel series, as Derrick Murdoch described it in the Toronto Globe and Mail, is set in the cold-war years of the 1950s and 1960s and takes readers behind the scenes of the major political crises of the time. In doing so, the novels provide Buckley with the opportunity to dramatize some of his ideas concerning East-West relations. As Lehmann-Haupt remarked in the New York Times, "not only can Buckley execute the international thriller as well as nearly anyone working in the genre . . . he threatens to turn this form of fiction into effective propaganda for his ideas."

Saving the Queen, the first of the "Blackford Oakes" novels, is based in part on Buckley's own experiences in the C.I.A. "The training received by Blackford Oakes is, in exact detail, the training I received," the author explained. "In that sense, it's autobiographical." Oakes, a thinly disguised version of his creator, also shares Buckley's school years at an English public school and at Yale University. The story concerns a leak of classified information at the highest levels of the British government. Oakes is sent to locate the source of the leak, and his investigation uncovers a treasonous cousin in the royal family. Robin W. Winks of the New Republic found Saving the Queen to be "replete with ambiguity, irony, suspense—all those qualities we associate with [Eric] Ambler, [Graham] Greene, [and John] le Carre." Amnon Kabatchnik of the Armchair Detective called Saving the Queen "an entertaining yarn, graced with a literate style, keen knowledge and a twinkling sense of humor [that] injected a touch of sophistication and a flavor of sly irony to the genre of political intrigue."

Stained Glass is set in post-World War II Germany and revolves around the efforts of both East and West to prevent the reunification of Germany under the popular Count Axel Wintergrin. Both sides fear that a united Germany would be a military threat to the peace of Europe. Oakes penetrates Wintergrin's political organization disguised as an engineer hired to restore a local church. His restoring of broken church windows contrasts ironically with his efforts to keep Germany divided. "This novel is a work of history," Winks maintained, "for it parallels those options that might well have been open to the West [in the 1950s]. . . . Stained Glass is closer to the bone than le Carre has ever cut." Jane Larkin Crain in the Saturday Review called Buckley's novel a "first-rate spy story and . . . a disturbing lesson in the unsavory realities of international politics." Stained Glass earned its author an American Book Award in 1980.

In building his novels around actual events, Buckley is obliged to include historical figures in his cast of characters. Speaking of See You Later, Alligator, Murdoch believed that "the telling personal [details] are helping to make the Blackford Oakes series unique in spy fiction." In his review of The Story of Henri Tod, Anatole Broyard claimed in the New York Times that "the best part" of the novel is Buckley's "portrait of former President John F. Kennedy. His rendering of Nikita Khrushchev is quite good too, and this tempts me to suggest that Mr. Buckley seems most at home when he projects himself into the minds of heads of state." Similarly, Elaine Kendall in the Los Angeles Times Book Review speculated that Buckley may be evolving into "a psychic historian who can project himself into the most convoluted political minds."

A Very Private Plot, Buckley's tenth offering in the "Blackford Oakes" series, takes his hero to the end of the cold war. Commenting on the author's development as a novelist, D. Keith Mano wrote in National Review, "He is a better fiction writer now by leagues than he was in 1976, when Saving the Queen took off. New directness and clarity jumpstart his prose. He has command of several voices and can modulate each. And, structurally, his later volumes . . . have had an arrow-shaped ease and purpose." Furthermore, in Mano's opinion, "no one, Right or Left, has chronicled the Cold War period with more imagination or authority." Robin W. Winks mused in Washington Post Book World: "One wonders what Buckley would write, and what Oakes would do, were they to begin a 10-book trek now through the intricacies of intelligence in a post-Cold War world of enormously dangerous and very dirty small wars."

Buckley's novel Brothers No More finds its author departing from his "Blackford Oakes" series. Described as "an epic saga of doomed Yalies" by Joe Queenan in the New York Times Book Review, the novel turns on the changing fortunes of two men who share a foxhole during World War II. One becomes a corrupt businessman, the other a tenacious reporter. Years after their initial encounter, their paths cross again in a strange twist of fate. In Queenan's opinion, the novel's plot is flimsy and contrived, the book "best thought of as patrician trash." He went on to say that Buckley's fine writing actually sabotages the novel: "For trash to work, the writing has to be genuinely trashy, as in Jackie Collins, Danielle Steel, Judith Krantz. For trash to work, the writing has to be positively awful." Queenan speculated that Buckley intended Brothers No More to be a genuinely serious book, but that it falls far short of that ambition. A Publishers Weekly reviewer rated the book as enjoyable, but concluded that "this is just a potboiler, deftly stirred but no match for Buckley's best."

Buckley cowrote McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Meaning with L. Brent Bozell in 1954 in support of the Wisconsin senator who, after the conviction of spy Alger Hiss in 1950, led hearings to uncover suspected communists in the United States. He revisits this subject in his 1999 novel The Redhunter: A Novel Based on the Life of Senator Joe McCarthy. Caspar W. Weinberger, reviewing the novel in Forbes, called The Redhunter "one of the year's best books, full of tension, excitement, suspense, and realism." The protagonist is Harry Bontecou, a history professor and McCarthy supporter whose life parallels that of the young Buckley. Terry Teachout wrote in National Review that The Redhunter "tells us much of what he [Buckley] knows about the anti-Communist movement, and does so in a way that is likely to engage the attention of a great many readers who might not otherwise question the received wisdom regarding Joe McCarthy." Fortune reviewer Sam Tanenhaus called the novel "an arresting hybrid of fact and invention" and "a penetrating account of McCarthy's intellectual laziness and lack of discipline, which were heightened by his dependence on both the vodka bottle and the advice of Roy Cohn, his sinister young aide." A Publishers Weekly reviewer opined that "what's missing from this account is the suffering of those whose lives were torn apart by unsubstantiated allegations," while Booklist reviewer Mary Carroll added: "one can only hope readers will understand that Buckley . . . is telling only one side of this very complicated story."

Like the books in Buckley's "Blackford Oakes" series, Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton is a fictional account of the life of a Yale graduate who served as a spy for the United States in Italy during World War II, then returned to head the counterintelligence operation of the C.I.A. for twenty years. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Buckley's perspective on Angleton's life "perceptive," but added that Spytime "suffers from glaring gaps in the master spy's biography." David Pitt wrote in Booklist that "readers familiar with Buckley's politics will find much to enjoy here . . . but those looking for a fully formed novel may be a tad disappointed." "This novel successfully explores the enigmatic life of a Cold Warrior," praised Barbara Conaty in Library Journal.

Let Us Talk of Many Things, published in 2000, contains about one third of the speeches Buckley delivered during the last half of the twentieth century. Booklist reviewer Ray Olson noted that "scattered throughout are delicious anecdotes, piquant quotations, and much evidence of a keen moral sensibility." "From his earliest efforts in the 1950s to the very last page, Buckley's speeches are alive with wit, conviction, and a lucid, fluent grace few of his contemporaries can match," added Aram Bakshian, Jr., in National Review. "And they are as much of a delight on the printed page as from the podium. Patinated rather than rusted, they have stood the severest test of all for public utterances—the test of time."

As columnist, television host, novelist, and magazine editor, Buckley became "one of the most articulate, provocative, and entertaining spokesmen for American conservatism" in the twentieth century, according to Gene M. Moore in his Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook essay. For his role in the development of the modern conservative movement that fueled the careers of commentators such as George Will and Rush Limbaugh, Buckley "is a man who richly deserves praise," Kondracke argued. "He is generous, erudite, witty and courageous, and he has performed a service to the whole nation, even to those who disagree with him." Writing in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, John Haase called Buckley "witty, erudite, multifaceted, perhaps one of the few great exponents of the English language. He is politically contentious, a 'farceur,' I suspect, but we are willing to forgive all, because mostly Buckley is fun." Summing up Buckley's role in the nation's political life, Moore found that his "flickering tongue and flashing wit have challenged a generation to remember the old truths while searching for the new, to abhor hypocrisy and to value logic, and to join in the worldwide struggle for human rights and human freedom."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Cain, Edward R., They'd Rather Be Right: Youth and the Conservative Movement, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1963.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 7, 1977, Volume 18, 1981, Volume 37, 1986.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1980, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1981.

Forster, Arnold, and B. R. Epstein, Danger on the Right, Random House (New York, NY), 1964.

Judis, John, William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1988.

Markmann, Charles L., The Buckleys: A Family Examined, Morrow (New York, NY), 1973.

PERIODICALS

America, January 31, 1998, Thomas M. King, review of Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith, p. 32.

American Book Review, June 16, 1993.

American Spectator, August, 1997, pp. 70-71.

Armchair Detective, June, 1976.

Atlantic Monthly, November, 1951; May, 1954; July, 1968.

Booklist, July, 1995, p. 1835; November 15, 1996, p. 547; September 1, 1997, Ray Olson, review of Nearer, My God, p. 4; March 15, 1999, Mary Carroll, review of The Redhunter: A Novel Based on the Life of Senator Joe McCarthy, p. 1259; April 15, 2000, David Pitt, review of Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton, p. 1498; May 1, 2000, Ray Olson, review of Let Us Talk of Many Things, p. 1639; February 1, 2003, Mary Carroll, review of Getting It Right, p. 955.

Boston Globe, January 25, 1988, p. 28; August 20, 1988, p. 25; February 19, 1991, p. 30; September 7, 1991, p. 21.

Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1959; January 10, 1988, p. B2; June 22, 1989, p. 1; October 26, 1990, p. 3; January 3, 1992, p. 5; March 20, 1994, p. 2; June 23, 1995, p. 3.

Christian Century, July 3, 1968; November 19, 1997, D. G. Hart, review of Nearer, My God, pp. 1091-1094.

Christianity Today, November 17, 1997, John Wilson, review of Nearer, My God, p. 59.

Christian Science Monitor, August 29, 1968; August 16, 1978; December 20, 1980; February 24, 1984; June 30, 1988, p. 29; July 18, 1988, p. 21; November 29, 1990, p. 19.

Commentary, April, 1974; November, 1983; February, 1992.

Commonweal, February 15, 1952; May 3, 1963; December 23, 1966; March 1, 1974; March 13, 1998, Neil Coughlan, review of Nearer, My God, p. 15.

Esquire, January, 1961; November, 1966; January, 1968; August, 1969; September, 1969; February, 1972; July, 1976.

First Things, May, 2003, review of Getting It Right, p. 74.

Forbes, October 10, 1994, pp. 60-69; August 9, 1999, p. 41.

Fortune, June 7, 1999, Sam Tanenhaus, "W. F. Buckley's Auto-Revisionism," p. 48.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), February 18, 1984; April 13, 1985.

Harper's, March, 1967; November, 1971; October, 1983.

Houston Chronicle, January 9, 1998.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 1996, review of Buckley: The Right Word; August 1, 1997, review of Nearer, My God; January 15, 2003, review of Getting It Right, p. 103.

Library Journal, September 15, 1997, Richard S. Watts, review of Nearer, My God, p. 79; November 1, 1998, Lisa J. Cihlar, review of The Lexicon: A Cornucopia of Wonderful Words for the Inquisitive Word Lover, p. 80; June 15, 1999, Barbara Conaty, review of The Redhunter, p. 105; May 1, 2000, Barbara Conaty, review of Spytime, p. 152; February 1, 2003, Barbara Conaty, review of Getting It Right, p. 114.

Life, September 17, 1965.

Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1983; January 17, 1988, p. B10; July 1, 1988, p. VI25; July 14, 1988, p. V1; May 7, 1989, p. B1; November 11, 1990, p. E1; November 25, 1990, p. M4; July 6, 1991, p. F1; July 1, 1994, p. F34; November 17, 1995, p. B6; June 2, 1996, p. A13.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, February 7, 1982; September 12, 1982; January 22, 1984; April 7, 1985; March 23, 1986.

Nation, October 2, 1972; April 26, 1980; January 25, 1993, pp. 92-96, 98-99.

National Catholic Reporter, January 24, 1992; November 7, 1997, review of Nearer, My God, p. 27.

National Review, May 7, 1963; November 15, 1966; July 30, 1968; September 13, 1974; October 24, 1975; December 5, 1975; February 20, 1976; May 13, 1977; June 9, 1978; November 24, 1978; April 4, 1980; January 22, 1982; October 15, 1982; September 2, 1983; February 24, 1984; December 31, 1985; July 31, 1987, pp. 44-6; January 6, 1992; May 11, 1992; December 28, 1992, pp. 40-2; October 4, 1993, pp. 55-7; February 21, 1994, pp. 58-60; October 23, 1995, p. 57; June 5, 2000, Aram Bakshian, Jr., "Music for Our Ears"; June 14, 1999, Terry Teachout, "McCarthy and His Friends," p. 47; March 10, 2003, Austin Bramwell, review of Getting It Right; March 24, 2003, "Objectivist Sex—And Politics" (interview).

New American, March 10, 2003, William Norman Greig, review of Getting It Right, p. 25.

New Republic, October 19, 1959; June 10, 1978; February 10, 1992.

Newsweek, October 17, 1966; March 25, 1968; August 2, 1971; September 30, 1974; January 5, 1976; February 19, 1979.

New Yorker, August 8, 1970; August 21, 1971; August 28, 1971; October 12, 1992, pp. 114-18.

New York Review of Books, July 18, 1974; October 13, 1983.

New York Times, November 4, 1951; April 4, 1954; October 6, 1971; April 5, 1978; February 6, 1980; February 25, 1981; December 28, 1981; August 18, 1983; December 21, 1983; February 4, 1985; March 27, 1986; January 24, 1988, p. 11; May 15, 1988, p. 12; August 16, 1988, p. B1; March 31, 1989, p. B2; May 28, 1989, p. 7; October 1, 1989, p. 27; October 13, 1988, p. B2; May 4, 1989, p. C24; October 12, 1990, p. B2; October 15, 1990, p. C16; September 6, 1991, p. B2; January 22, 1992, p. C20; July 13, 1992, p. C13; October 25, 1992, p. 14; July 7, 1993, p. C18; January 5, 1994, p. B2; September 3, 1995, p. 37; January 2, 1996, pp. 12-13; October 2, 1997, p. B7; December 19, 1997, p. B26.

New York Times Book Review, March 25, 1962; April 28, 1963; October 30, 1966; September 15, 1968; August 2, 1970; September 26, 1971; October 8, 1972; January 13, 1974; September 28, 1975; December 26, 1976; January 11, 1978; May 14, 1978; November 19, 1978; February 17, 1980; March 30, 1980; January 24, 1982; March 7, 1982; September 5, 1982; August 7, 1983; February 5, 1984; March 3, 1985, pp. 12, 13; January 5, 1986, p. 14; February 9, 1986; April 6, 1986; May 31, 1987, p. 34; January 24, 1988, p. 11; May 15, 1988, p. 12; May 28, 1989, pp. 7, 8; October 28, 1990, pp. 1, 39; February 17, 1991, p. 15; September 27, 1992, pp. 3, 24; October 3, 1993, p. 14; February 6, 1994, p. 14; September 10, 1995, p. 16; September 28, 1997, p. 16.

New York Times Magazine, September 5, 1965.

Publishers Weekly, August 26, 1974; February 24, 1989, p. 211; August 7, 1995, p. 441; September 29, 1997, review of Nearer, My God, p. 84; April 26, 1999, p. 50; July 5, 1999, review of The Redhunter (audio), p. 34; May 22, 2000, review of Spytime, p. 70.

San Francisco Review of Books, November-December, 1993, p. 28.

Saturday Review, April 3, 1954; October 10, 1959; April 27, 1963; August 8, 1970; May 13, 1978; January, 1982.

Time, October 31, 1960; November 4, 1966; November 3, 1967; August 2, 1971; November 18, 1974; January 5, 1976; December 6, 1976; June 19, 1978; February 19, 1979; February 25, 1980; January 18, 1982; October 25, 1982; December 9, 1985; February 4, 1986; March 31, 1986; June 15, 1987; November 10, 1997, John Elson, review of Nearer, My God, p. 111; June 7, 1999, Lance Morrow, "Alger 'Ales' and Joe: Was McCarthy on the Right Track?," p. 66.

Times Literary Supplement, March 12, 1976; July 27, 1984.

Vanity Fair, September, 1993.

Village Voice, February 21, 1974; December 8, 1975.

Wall Street Journal, November 15, 1966; January 31, 1967; February 11, 1994, p. A11; April 29, 1994, p. A14; December 23, 1997, p. A12.

Washington Post, February 12, 1980; October 6, 1990, p. C1; September 7, 1991, p. G1; December 12, 1991, p. B1; December 17, 1991, p. A21; June 29, 1992, pp. B1, B5.

Washington Post Book World, June 30, 1968; January 23, 1972; February 12, 1980; January 10, 1982; September 4, 1983; March 24, 1985; March 9, 1986; May 24, 1987; April 30, 1989, p. 4; October 28, 1990, p. 1; January 22, 1991, p. B3; June 29, 1992, p. B1; January 25, 1994, p. C2; August 7, 1994, p. 4.*