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Conservative Writer William F. Buckley Dies
February 28, 2008 09:27 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
William F. Buckley, 82, political commentator, TV personality and former editor of the National Review, died Wednesday at his Connecticut home.
30-Second Summary
The product of a patrician East Coast upbringing, a prep school education and Catholic finishing schools in Europe, conservative pundit William F. Buckley is recognized as a catalyst in the development of the modern conservative movement.
Blog The Moderate Voice writes that Buckley “made conservatism respectable ... It was Buckley more than anyone else who was responsible for the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 and the coming of Ronald Reagan in 1980, who checked the liberal advances made since the New Deal in the 1930s.”
His publishing career started at Yale, where he was elected chairman of the Yale Daily News. In 1951, only a few years later, he published “God and Man at Yale,” a book that attacked the university's atheistic tendencies at the time. The book established Buckley as a voice of the right.
The editorial staff of the National Review, the newsmagazine he founded in 1955 and at which he served as editor-in-chief until 1990, writes that he kept conservatism “from drifting into the fever swamps. And he gave it a wit, style, and intelligence that earned the respect and friendship even of his adversaries.”
PBS television host Charlie Rose attested to the writer’s charm on a video clip of his show devoted to Buckley, calling him a “friend.” In the same clip, Buckley says, “As you grow older, you become more exacting of your performances.”
Blog The Moderate Voice writes that Buckley “made conservatism respectable ... It was Buckley more than anyone else who was responsible for the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 and the coming of Ronald Reagan in 1980, who checked the liberal advances made since the New Deal in the 1930s.”
His publishing career started at Yale, where he was elected chairman of the Yale Daily News. In 1951, only a few years later, he published “God and Man at Yale,” a book that attacked the university's atheistic tendencies at the time. The book established Buckley as a voice of the right.
The editorial staff of the National Review, the newsmagazine he founded in 1955 and at which he served as editor-in-chief until 1990, writes that he kept conservatism “from drifting into the fever swamps. And he gave it a wit, style, and intelligence that earned the respect and friendship even of his adversaries.”
PBS television host Charlie Rose attested to the writer’s charm on a video clip of his show devoted to Buckley, calling him a “friend.” In the same clip, Buckley says, “As you grow older, you become more exacting of your performances.”
Headline Links: Buckley on audio and video
Buckley appeared on Charlie Rose’s PBS hour-long program several times. Rose dedicated one edition of his show to Buckley, featuring a montage of interviews with the conservative writer. He called Buckley his friend despite “not always agreeing with him.”
Source: YouTube
Buckley read his contribution to National Public Radio series “This I Believe” in 2005. The piece is titled “How Is It Possible to Believe in God?” and in it Buckley states, “This I believe: that it is intellectually easier to credit a divine intelligence than to submit dumbly to felicitous congeries about nature.”
Source: NPR
Obituaries: William F. Buckley (1925–2008)
Buckley’s obituary in Time magazine lists the numerous pursuits of the right-wing pundit: “Editor, columnist, novelist, debater, TV talk show star of ‘Firing Line,’ harpsichordist, trans-oceanic sailor and even a good-natured loser in a New York mayor's race, Buckley worked at a daunting pace, taking as little as 20 minutes to write a column for his magazine, the National Review.” He had been slowly withdrawing from the public eye since 1990.
Source: Time
Speaker of “10-dollar words” and author of over 55 books, Buckley was, in the words of Arthur M. Schlesinger, “the scourge of liberalism.” Amid post-World War II liberalism, Buckley gave ground and focus to the conservative movement. As The New York Times puts it, he “weaved the tapestry of what became the new American conservatism from libertarian writers like Max Eastman, free market economists like Milton Friedman, traditionalist scholars like Russell Kirk and anti-Communist writers like Whittaker Chambers.” He was known for the eloquent prose in his writing and from his tenure as host of PBS debate program “Firing Line.” He gained attention in 2003 when he came out against the Iraq War.
Source: The New York Times
An obituary from the editorial staff of the National Review calls their magazine Buckley’s “lengthened shadow.” They credit him with inspiring three generations and defining modern conservatism in America, keeping “it from drifting into the fever swamps. And he gave it a wit, style, and intelligence that earned the respect and friendship even of his adversaries.”
Source: National Review
Daniel Finkelstein, blogger for The Times of London, calls Buckley one of the greatest intellectuals of the past century. “But not really because of anything he wrote or said,” writes Finkelstein. “It was because of what he did. In founding the National Review, he rescued conservatives from their schisms and arcane disputes. He rooted out, for instance, anti-Semitism and brought different wings of the movement together. The result was the creation of the defining force in U.S. politics over the last three decades.”
Source: The Times of London
The writer of the blog Caffeinated Politics says that while the political views Buckley espoused were sometimes objectionable, “as a teenager I found myself watching his ‘Firing Line’ program, and was in awe that someone could have such a rich and diverse vocabulary ... While listening to his program I would learn new words for my own usage. When was the last time anyone said that about a television program?”
Source: Caffeinated Politics
Not holding the neoconservative guard of the current GOP in high esteem, Buckley “picked a really lousy time to die,” writes blog The Moderate Voice. The blog says that Buckley “made conservatism respectable … It was Buckley more than anyone else who was responsible for the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 and the coming of Ronald Reagan in 1980, who checked the liberal advances made since the New Deal in the 1930s.”
Source: The Moderate Voice
Reference: Buckley’s works
Buckley had a National Review column called “Notes and Asides” in which he personally responded to readers’ letters. “Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from National Review” is a compendium of these articles.
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
Buckley’s 2007 novel “The Rake” tells the story of a young, handsome upstart who wins the Democratic presidential nomination despite his extramarital activities.
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
“God and Man at Yale,” written in 1951 by Buckley when he was 25, is a critique of the atheistic approach to academia prevalent at his alma mater Yale at the time.
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
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