Buckley, William Frank, Jr.

▪ 2009

      American editor, commentator, and writer

born Nov. 24, 1925, New York, N.Y.

died Feb. 27, 2008, Stamford, Conn.

became an important intellectual influence in politics as the founder (1955) and editor in chief of the journal National Review, which he used as a forum for conservative views and ideas. The oil fortune amassed by Buckley's immigrant grandfather enabled the boy to be reared in comfortable circumstances. His early education was by private tutors and at two English boys schools. Buckley spent a year at the University of Mexico and then served three years in the U.S. Army during World War II before entering Yale University. There he taught Spanish, distinguished himself in debate, and was chairman of the Yale Daily News. He later joined the staff of The American Mercury literary magazine. His column of political commentary, “On the Right,” was syndicated in 1962 and appeared regularly in more than 200 newspapers. Starting in 1966, Buckley served as host of Firing Line, a weekly television interview program dealing with politics and public affairs. He wrote more than 50 books, among them God and Man at Yale (1951), Up from Liberalism (1959), and Rumbles Left and Right (1963). He coauthored McCarthy and His Enemies (1954), and in the late 1970s he turned his hand to writing spy novels, which include Saving the Queen (1976), Stained Glass (1978), Marco Polo, if You Can (1982), and See You Later Alligator (1985). His political novel The Rake was published in 2007, and at the time of his death, Buckley was working on books about politicians Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

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