I’ve now had the chance to finish Lott’s book about William F. Buckley. He wrote the book as part of the Christian Encounters series for Thomas Nelson. The book is a quick read and is absolutely packed with interesting information about WFB. I say that as a person who has been reading Buckley and reading about him for many years. Lott’s book (titled William F. Buckley) gets past the half dozen or so anecdotes we’ve all heard and shares lots of great stuff about Buckley as a thinker and controversialist.
A few interesting features:
- Lott compares Buckley’s charges made in God and Man at Yale with the recent experiences of a Yale student (Deepthink!). Perhaps unsurprisingly, but humorously, the recent student utterly vindicates young Buckley’s concerns about his alma mater.
- We get a great moment in which Buckley protested Kruschev’s visit to America by renting a hall and giving a rousing speech. He told the crowd not to despair because of the moral resources Americans had that the Soviets didn’t and added that the Soviet leader, “is not aware that the gates of hell shall not prevail against us . . . In the end we will bury him.”
- We learn that WFB could well have become the senator for New York instead of his brother, Jim, who served one term. After Robert Kennedy was shot, Buckley decided to stand down in favor of Jim. What might that chamber have been like with the most eloquent and cutting Buckley on the floor????
The book is highly satisfying and extremely well done. I am impressed that an evangelical publishing company has offered the best biography since WFB’s death. We would expect it from ISI or Regnery. Of course, we all await the authorized volume someday to come from Sam Tanenhaus who was so successful in his treatment of Whittaker Chambers’ life.
September 10th, 2010 | 4:03 am | #1
William F. buckley, was, one can say, without hyperbole, the greatest conservative who ever lived. I can recall, as a young person, being so excited to see his firingline show and debates on controversial topics. He was always well versed in every topic, and always treated his oppnents with the greatest respect. I recall my sadness, when he gave up Firingline, in 1999.
His energy, and courage, were relentless, to the end. He suffered a devastating, and cruel pulmonary disease, emphesema, that robbed him of his ability to do what he did best: his ability to write fully.
But he did courageously continue writing, up until his death, books on Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan.
His son, Christopher, wrote a profoundly moving memoir, of his parents, Losing Mum and Pup, which I read last summer, and would recommend to all.
Sadly, there seemed to be a gradual decline, NOT in his intellect, which remained as strong as when he put God and Man at Yale to paper, but in his health, and duties. He gradually gave up more and more, beginning with the editorship of his great creation, NR, in 1988. But he never gave up his profound curiosity, or independence of thought. Agree, or disagree, he knew what he believed, and why. He triggered some eyebrow raising with his advocacy of the legalization of drugs, but whether one thought this was wise or not, no one could legitimately dispute that he provided cogent reasons for his views (good pragmatic ones, for the legalization of drugs).
He sadly lost his wife, several months before his own death, and Charlie Rose, who was a good friend of his (Buckley had an admirable propensity for making friends, across the ideological divide), stated that, seeing Buckley at the latter’s wife’s funeral, made him think he may not last the year.
Sadly WFB passed away, in Feb. of 2008, to the profound, and irreplacable loss to the intelectual, literary, political, and religious world.