The Life of Buckley

Accuracy in Academia ^ | June 21, 2010 | Bethany Stotts

[bs9021]

The Life of Buckley

Bethany Stotts, June 21, 2010

At Accuracy in Academia’s June 14 Author’s night, Heritage Foundation scholar Lee Edwards described the late William F. Buckley Jr. as the St. Paul of the conservative movement.

The founder of National Review, Buckley Jr. was a devout Catholic.

Buckley “could almost be called in some sense the patron saint of the tea party movement,” which supports limited government, is anti-establishment, and “love[s] to stick a finger in the eye of the Republican party, and the Democratic party…and all organized parties,” argued Edwards, author of William F. Buckley, Jr.: The Maker of a Movement. He described Buckley’s natural generosity:

“He [Buckley] was in Texas one day and…was introduced and went to a, to a young veteran of the Vietnam war who was blind and [they] said, well, we’re sorry but you’ll never see again. And it so happened that Bill Buckley knew a very prominent eye surgeon in New York City [and] got this young man on a plane to New York. The surgeon looked at him, said ‘I think we can do something here’ and after several operations, successful, the young man recovered his sight.”

For Edwards, Buckley’s life and actions strike a personal note. He said that he knew Buckley for almost 50 years and that Buckley had published his first article in National Review.

Buckley also once called Edwards’ wife, then single, about an editorial she wrote in the Young Women’s Republican Club of New York newsletter, he said. Not believing it was really the conservative writer, she initially hung up on him after dismissing the call as a spoof, he noted....

[iowamark]

His first book was an instant classic:

[SnakeDoctor]

I have a whole shelf of Buckley books in my library. Aside from my parents, Buckley is truly one of the most influential individuals in forming my outlook.

He was brilliant, gracious, generous, and faithful ... but was also combative when necessary. And, he was a true renaissance man. A few interesting tidbits about the life of the esteemed WFB — his first language was Spanish, not English; and he was an undercover CIA operative in Mexico before his entry onto the conservative political scene.

He is one of very few people I look forward to meeting when my number comes up. There are very few role models in public life ... WFB was one of them.

SnakeDoc

[Oratam]

I greatly admired Buckley and was a subscriber to NR for almost 20 years. He saved the converative movement from being the province of cranks and kooks . . . a characterisation the MSM believes is still valid. Thank you Mr. Buckley. RIP.