UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · JOURNALISTS
William F. Buckley
Also known as: William F. Buckley Jr., William F. Jr Buckley
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing style was famed for its erudition, wit, and use of uncommon words. George H. Nash, a historian of the modern American conservative movement, believed that Buckley was "arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century". "For an entire generation he was the preeminent voice of American conservatism and its first great ecumenical figure." Buckley's primary change to politics was the fusion of traditional American political conservatism with laissez-faire economic theory and anti-communism, laying the groundwork for the modern American conservatism of U.S. presidential candidates Barry Goldwater and President Ronald Reagan. Buckley wrote first God and Man at Yale (1951); among over fifty further books on writing, speaking, history, politics and sailing, were a series of novels featuring CIA agent Blackford Oakes. Buckley referred to himself as either a libertarian or conservative. He resided in New York City and Stamford, Connecticut. He was a practicing Roman Catholic, regularly attending the traditional Latin Mass in Connecticut.
AFTER PLEADING FOR THREE WEEKS, ORSON FINALLY got permission: His mother would allow him to bicycle to his school in Wiesbaden.
— from Elvis in the Morning, 2001
Most acclaimed
Overdrive
1967
Jake has finally got his driver’s license, and tonight he has his brother’s car as well. He and his friend Mickey take the car out and cruise the strip. When they challenge another driver to a street race, a disastrous chain reaction causes an accident. Jake and Mickey leave the scene, trying to convince themselves they were not involved. Jake finds he cannot pretend it didn’t happen and struggles with the right thing to do. Should he pretend he was not involved? Or should he go to the police?
Elvis in the Morning
2001
"Orson is a schoolboy in Germany whose American mother works at a U.S. Army base in the 1950s. There he becomes a fan of a G.I. stationed nearby, a soldier whose music captivates Orson, as it has so much of America: Elvis Presley. Orson is caught in the PX stealing records of Elvis's music, and the military court mock-seriously sentences him to a month without Elvis music. The publicity catches the young star's attention, and Elvis goes to visit his deprived young fan and then sings for him. That is the beginning of a lifelong friendship." "Against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s, Elvis's career rockets ever higher, and he becomes the icon of the nation while Orson, in college in America, joins the student protesters and then goes on the road, searching for something to believe in. Each man is an emblem of his time, as social conventions fall and the cultural landscape changes forever."--BOOK JACKET.
Nearer, my God
This is the memoir of one man's faith. The renowned social and political commentator, William F. Buckley Jr., turns to a highly personal subject - his faith. And he tells us the story of his life as a Catholic Christian. Nearer, My God is the most reflective, poignant, and searching of Bill Buckley's many books. In the opening chapters he relives his childhood, a loving, funny, nostalgic glimpse into pre-World War II America and England. He speaks about his religious experiences to a world that has changed dramatically. He is unafraid of revealing the most personal side of his faith. He describes, in his distinctive style, the intimacy of a trip to Lourdes, the impact on him of the searing account by Maria Valtorta of the Crucifixion, the ordination of his nephew into the priesthood, and gives a moving account of his mother's death. And there is humor, as Buckley gives a unique, hilarious view of a visit to the Vatican with Malcolm Muggeridge, Charlton Heston, Grace Kelly, and David Niven. Personal though this book is, Buckley has gone to others to examine new perspectives, putting together his own distinguished "Forum" and leaning on the great literature of the past to illustrate his thinking on contemporary Catholic and Christian issues.