I cannot remember who said this, but in describing the history of the American Right, one author reported that Buckley supported the Establishment and was allowed to remain, albeit with ridicule; but because the Birch Society wanted to dethrone the Establishment, they were attacked and, for practical purposes, were destroyed.

William Buckley was a master of the English language, but we must never forget that it was he who suggested in 1952 that we should accept a “totalitarian bureaucracy” to fight Communism. He was at his best when he poured ridicule on Establishmentarian foolishness, but he rarely said what he favored.

The Birch Society was, and is, not perfect; nobody bats a thousand. Nevertheless, I like to think of them as the grandparents of today’s “Tea Party” movement: patriots who are trying to restore our Constitution and to remove from power those who swear to “preserve, protect, and defend” it, while doing their best to remove it from the political scene.

Sincerely,

Gordon F. Corbett

The world Buckley helped bring to life and megaphone is seen to best advantage as an echt-American socio-cultural episode inseparable from the broader canvas, its major figures fit for a wide-angle social-panorama novel after Balzac, Dickens or Tolstoy. In 1966, Firing Line hits the world of PBS gentility at a slightly jaunty, rakish right angle of the sort whose visual counter was that of its diagonally-leaning, tongue-darting optically-oscillating host, who came to define the Old Testament decades of that network equally with its apolitically-anodyne marquee pillars Julia Child, Alastair Cooke, Dick Cavett, Carl Sagan, Fred Rogers, and Big Bird. National Review itself was exhibit B in this exchange, serving famously as since as farm team to a whole host of writers who would sight land before long at tonier and/or better-paying venues, the figures of “New Journalist” Joan Didion, political jack-of-all-trades Garry Wills, veteran NYC bookman John Leonard (predecessor by 33 years of Sam Tanenhaus as NYTBR helmsman), New Yorker arts critic Arlene Croce, “organic” Poundian Age-of-McLuhan lit-critics Hugh Kenner and Guy Davenport…Buckley said ruefully that he didn’t realize he was running a “finishing school for apostates”, but, frankly, I don’t see any cause for complaint in that at all: there are hierarchies and progressions thus in any field, and serving thus as talent scout for the majors is nothing to sneeze at; it’s not as if the next Tolstoy is going to be an NR regular, or at all, this side of a parallel galaxy far, far away…

We also gain from looking at WFB in chronological yearbook fashion, arrayed with other babies from the class of ’25 at dear old Maternity High:

Robert Altman Film Director 2006 M*A*S*H
Howard Baker Government Reagan’s Chief of Staff
Russell Baker Author Growing Up
Tony Benn Politician Radical left Labour MP
Yogi Berra Baseball New York Yankee malapropist
Pierre Boulez Composer Modern composer and conductor
Lenny Bruce Comic 1966 Multiply obscene comic
Art Buchwald Columnist 2007 Syndicated columnist/humorist
William F. Buckley Columnist 2008 National Review
Richard Burton Actor 1984 Nineteen Eighty Four
Barbara Bush First Lady Wife of President GHW Bush
Johnny Carson Talk Show Host 2005 Longtime host of Tonight Show
Carlos Castaneda Author 1998 The Teachings of Don Juan
Warren Christopher Government US Secretary of State, 1993-97
Tony Curtis Actor Houdini and Some Like It Hot
Sammy Davis, Jr. Singer 1990 Coolest hepcat in the Rat Pack
Mike Douglas Talk Show Host 2006 Host of 1970s Mike Douglas Show
John Ehrlichman Government 1999 Watergate criminal, served time
Al Feldstein Editor Editor of MAD, 1956-84
Edward Gorey Author 2000 Amphigorey
Merv Griffin Talk Show Host 2007 The Merv Griffin Show, Jeopardy
Bill Haley Musician 1981 Rock Around the Clock
Nat Hentoff Critic The Jazz Life
Hal Holbrook Actor Mark Twain Tonight
Rock Hudson Actor 1985 Ice Station Zebra
George Kennedy Actor Airport, Naked Gun
Robert F. Kennedy Politician 1968 Slain Presidential candidate
B. B. King Musician King of the Blues
Paul Kurtz Philosopher The pope of unbelievers
Angela Lansbury Actor Murder She Wrote
Jack Lemmon Actor 2001 The Odd Couple
Elmore Leonard Novelist Crime novelist, including Swag
June Lockhart Actor Mom on Lassie, Lost in Space
Patrice Lumumba Head of State 1961 First Prime Minister of Congo
Malcolm X Activist 1965 Nation of Islam
Norris McWhirter Author 2004 Guinness Book of World Records
Ross McWhirter Author 1975 Guinness Book of World Records
Yukio Mishima Author 1970 The Sea of Fertility
Paul Newman Actor Salad dressing magnate
Hugh O’Brian Actor The Life and Legend/Wyatt Earp
Donald O’Connor Actor 2003 Singin’ in the Rain
Flannery O’Connor Author 1964 A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Fess Parker Actor Daniel Boone
Sam Peckinpah Film Director 1984 Breakthrough ultraviolent film
Pol Pot Head of State 1998 Leader of the Khmer Rouge
Joe Pyne TV Personality 1970 Father of attack TV
Joyce Randolph Actor Trixie on The Honeymooners
Marty Robbins Country Musician 1982 El Paso
Cliff Robertson Actor Uncle Ben in Spider-Man
Carl Rowan Columnist 2000 Chicago Sun-Times columnist
Pierre Salinger Journalist 2004 Internet conspiracies
Brent Scowcroft Government NatSec Advisor, Ford/GHWB
Peter Sellers Actor 1980 Inspector Clouseau
John Simon Critic Reviewer for New York magazine
Roger Smith Business 2007 CEO of General Motors, 1980-90
Anastasio Somoza Head of State 1980 Dictator of Nicaragua
Maureen Stapleton Actor 2006 Oscar for Emma Goldman role
Rod Steiger Actor 2002 In The Heat of the Night
Elaine Stritch Actor Two’s Company
William Styron Novelist 2006 The Confessions of Nat Turner
Margaret Thatcher Head of State UK Prime Minister, 1979-90
Mel Tormé Singer 1999 The Velvet Fog
John Tower Politician 1991 US Senator from Texas, 1961-85
Lee Van Cleef Actor 1989 The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Dick Van Dyke Actor The Dick Van Dyke Show
Robert Venturi Architect Postmodernist architect
Gwen Verdon Dancer 2000 Damn Yankees
Gore Vidal Author Visit to a Small Planet
Jonathan Winters Comic Mearth, son of Mork

Dougherty: His run for Mayor fits very nicely into gonzo happenings intended to embarass the liberal respectable establishment. It is interesting to think of the conservative movement and the counter-culture together. I’m sure you probably know of a good work that does this.

Try It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille from 1971, which you may already have. Everyone intimate with the events and persons depicted will make the stock truth v. stretchers disclaimers after the publishing and cinematic protocols, but none denies, I should think, the turbo-gonzo period fun to be had within, as I recall from my bliss-was-it-in-that-dawn perusal of it while attending high school 30 years ago just down the road from fellow then-Wiltonian, libertarian elder Henry Hazlitt.

James Panero
All My Sons
Two memoirs of William F. Buckley outline his towering shadow.

Buckley may have been wrong on Rothbard, but he was right and right early in regards to McCarthy. While many anti-Communists were committed to fighting the battles of the Cold War in flea ridden locales across the globe, Buckley, albeit briefly, fought many important battles in the US. That is worth a few kind words.

So he got a couple things right. And quite a few Libertarians and Paleo’s wrote savage obituaries about Buckley.