William F. Buckley, Jr.

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William F. Buckley, Jr. with President George W. Bush , 2005

William Frank Buckley Jr. (born November 24, 1925 in New York City , † February 27, 2008 in Stamford , Connecticut) was a conservative American author, journalist and commentator.

Life

William F. Buckley Jr. was born on November 24, 1925 in Manhattan as the sixth of ten children of Aloise Steiner Buckley and William Frank Buckley. William jr. grew up in a well-to-do family home that was characterized by conservatism and Catholicism. His father made his fortune from oil deals in Mexico and Venezuela . Buckley jr. initially received his education from private tutors at Great Elm, the family home in Sharon , Connecticut . At the age of 14 he moved to Millbrook School in New York State . After graduating from Millbrook, he studied Spanish for six months at the University of Mexico and then served from 1944 in the US Army , which he left in 1946 with the rank of Second Lieutenant . This was followed by a degree in political science, economics and history at Yale . He was elected Chairman of the Yale Daily News and was a member of the prestigious Skull and Bones fraternity .

After graduating, Buckley worked for the CIA in Mexico for a year , where his supervisor was E. Howard Hunt , who was later involved in the Watergate affair . In 1951, Buckley published his first book, God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of 'Academic Freedom' . In it he criticized Yale University, from which he had been sponded cum laude the year before . He accused her of abandoning her original role as a Christian college. Yale practices anti-religious, anti-capitalist and collectivist indoctrination. The book brought him national attention, not least because he had given his publisher, Regnery Publishing , $ 10,000 for an advertising campaign.

After leaving the CIA, Buckley first worked for a short time for American Mercury magazine and then as a freelance writer and lecturer. Together with his brother-in-law L. Brent Bozell , he published his second book, McCarthy and His Enemies , in 1954 , in which he vehemently defended Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist campaign .

In 1955, Buckley founded the influential conservative political journal National Review after receiving $ 100,000 from his father and another $ 290,000 from other donors. Its public presence was reinforced by its award-winning television talk show Firing Line , which ran from 1966 to 1999 and was the longest running talk show on American television.

Though a deeply political person, he barely held any political office. In 1965 he ran for the office of New York City Mayor. He was third with 13.4 percent from the race that John Lindsay won. Between 1969 and 1972 he was appointed to the National Advisory Commission on Information by President Nixon , and in 1973 he was a member of the US delegation to the United Nations .

Buckley was married to Patricia Aldyen Austin, nee Taylor, who died on April 15, 2007. His son Christopher is also a writer. Buckley died of diabetes and emphysema . He bequeathed his estate to Yale University.

Buckley's feud with the leftist writer Gore Vidal , which began at the time of the Democratic National Assembly in 1968 and established the word " crypto-fascism " in political discourse, achieved great publicity .

meaning

Buckley described himself as libertarian . He was known in print and visual media for his distinctive appearance. He came from a wealthy family, was educated in an English boarding school and cultivated a gentlemanly culture.

Buckley's real importance lies in popularizing conservative ideas in a liberal era of American politics. In a country shaped by Roosevelt's New Deal , the 1964 presidential campaign , in which Senator Barry Goldwater ran, was considered the beginning of the Conservatives' say in America. When Ronald Reagan became president in 1980 , victory was considered an achievement of the very movement that began with Goldwater (and Buckley). Buckley was a distinguished intellectual proponent of conservative ideology.

Buckley's thoughts came from the school of Max Eastman , Milton Friedman, and Russell Kirk . The emphasized criticism of communism was a basic ideological principle, modeled on the author Whittaker Chambers . Buckley was a staunch Catholic and served as a bridge figure between Catholicism and evangelical groups; this alliance grew steadily, although there was no dialogue before World War II.

Buckley wrote a total of more than 50 books, including autobiographical writings about his passion for sailing and a number of espionage novels.

Works

Non-fiction

  • Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography . 2004.
  • The Fall of the Berlin Wall . 2004.
  • Getting It Right . 2003.
  • Nuremberg: The Reckoning . 2002.
  • Elvis in the morning . 2001.
  • Let Us Talk of Many Things: The Collected Speeches . 2001.
  • Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton . 2001.
  • The Redhunter: A Novel Based on the Life of Senator Joe McCarthy . 1999.
  • Buckley: The Right Word . 1998.
  • The Lexicon: A Cornucopia of Wonderful Words for the Inquisitive Word Lover . 1998.
  • Nearer My God: An Autobiography of Faith . 1997.
  • Brothers No More . 1995.
  • Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist . 1993.
  • In Search of Anti-Semitism . 1992.
  • WindFall: The End of the Affair . 1992.
  • Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe to Our Country . 1990.
  • On the Firing Line: The Public Life of Our Public Figures . 1989.
  • Big Game Hunting in Central Africa . 1988.
  • Racing through Paradise: A Pacific Passage . 1987.
  • Right Reason: A Collection . 1985.
  • Airborne: A Sentimental Journey . 1984.
  • Overdrive: A Personal Documentary . 1983.
  • Atlantic High: A Celebration . 1982.
  • Who's on first . 1980.
  • Hymnal: The Controversial Arts . 1978.
  • Unmaking of a Mayor . 1977.
  • Execution Eve and Other Contemporary Ballads . 1975.
  • United Nations Journal: A Delegate's Odyssey . 1974.
  • Four Reforms: A Guide for the Seventies . 1973.
  • Cruising Speed: A Documentary . 1971.
  • Dialogues in Americanism . 1964.
  • Up From Liberalism . 1959.
  • God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of Academic Freedom . 1951.

Blackford Oakes book series

  • Last Call for Blackford Oakes . 2005.
  • The Blackford Oakes Reader . 1999.
  • A very private plot . 1993.
  • Tucker's Last Stand . 1990.
  • See you later, alligator . 1988.
  • Mongoose RIP 1987.
  • High jinks . 1986.
  • Story of Henri's death . 1984.
  • Marco Polo, If You Can . 1982.
  • Who's on first . 1980.
  • Stained glass . 1978.
  • Saving the Queen . 1976.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William F. Buckley, Jr .: Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist , Random House, New York 1993. ISBN 0-679-40398-1
  2. ↑ Linda Bridges / John R. Coyne Jr: Strictly Right. William F. Buckley, Jr. and the American Conservative Movement. J. Wiley & Sons, Hoboken 2007, ISBN 978-0-471-75817-4 , pp. 112f .; Political Animals: Vidal, Buckley and the '68 Conventions - Website about the dispute between Buckley and Vidal.

Sources and literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Buckley, William F. Jr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buckley, William Frank (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Conservative American author, journalist, and commentator
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 2008
Place of death Stamford, Connecticut