The most important figure in modern conservatism is William F. Buckley, Jr. This unauthorized biography by John B. Judis deserves its IC ranking since it proves Buckley's worth. And in so doing, the significance of the movement of the Right, its fissions and resultant lesions, its successes and resultant transformations, its disavowal of its classical liberal root, is laid bare.

Judis' work is not hagiography. He agrees little with Buckley and the posture he spawned. But he doesn't vituperate. He does not distort as is often the case when Leftist progressives substitute the raking of mud for critical objectivity. He is intrigued by Buckley's animus and shows so by his sympathetic treatment of his protagonist as man.

Judis creates an exciting panorama of a knighted existence. He cites his subject's life in phases: the "enfant terrible," the editor in chief, the public man, the establishment conservative, (and, what I consider saddening), "the celebrity."

The unwavering influence of William F. Buckley, Sr. on his son proved conclusive. Along with his siblings, the young WFB was taught the necessity of strong Catholicism as a buttress against Marxism. In addition, the ideas of what is now called the "Old Right," in meld with the verities of occidental unction, became for the young disputant, a complete worldview.

The combination of free-market individualism and strong Christian religiosity became the basis of Buckley's first (and best) book, God and Man at Yale. Judis paints an engrossing picture and in so doing, talks history:

The bridge between the controversial God and Man at Yale and the creation of National Review was embedded in the figure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Paul Gottfried, writing in the July, 1988 World and I, relates his friend Judis' explication of the early fifties:

In November of 1955, the first issue of NR appeared.

And the movement, heretofore the province of Chodorov, Nock, and the old "Human Events," changed drastically.

Judis is brilliant at recounting the founding of NR and its subsequent transformation into what we see now as a Neoconservative/celebratory journal of opinion. He intersperses chronology throughout while prefacing and welding within each segment human interest events surrounding the magazine.

Three salient points emerge:
1. The almost-fusionist beginnings.
2. The Bozell-Wills disconnect.
3. The move away from traditional conservatism.

NR's birthing cannot be separated from the original Freeman magazine. In, as managing editor, came Suzanne La Follette, who had been editor Nock's assistant. In addition, there were the two Freeman fans, brother-in-law Bozell, a McCarthy worker and PR expert Sam Jones. The operations function was rounded out.

As "associates and contributors" there were recruited featured Freeman writers Willi Schlamm and John Chamberlain.

The break with the Old Right was easily noticed as the masthead included former leftist/anti-communist pundits James Burnham, Kendall, Max Eastman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ralph de Toledano. Prominent on its pages were former Communists Frank Meyer (see my IC review), Freda Utley, and Eugene Lyons.  Judis points out that "except for Chodorov, who was a Buckley family friend, (no) right-wing isolationists were included on (the) National Review masthead."

I hope the IC reader will forgive the following long excerpt from Judis. It needs to be displayed as it foretells the bizarre situation, now existing, regarding the movement of the Right:

NR's eclectic mix of brilliant theoreticans would spell out the meaning of a brand-new conservatism.

Later on, NR would change.

Like fellow icon, Frank Sinatra's best work occurred in the 50's. His ballad/concept albums never tire. The ennui continues decade after decade. Likewise, with Buckley, the energy, the panache, the brilliant writing and oratory, is seen from the inaugural issue of NR until the mid-60's.

In what is his best chapter, Judis examines Buckley's "shock of rejection." Brother-in-law L. Brent Bozell, Jr. had collaborated on McCarthy and His Enemies and had spent his earlier years as senior editor of NR. Needing space and time to write what is still a great book on the Warren Supreme Court, Bozell took his family to Spain. Wowed by the Carlists he met, his Catholicism (he was a convert) began to foment. Struck by an idea that there should be a journal of radical Catholic thought not tied to notions of American Federalism, Bozell enlisted aid from Buckley (which he initially received).

But it was clear that Bozell thought outside of the right-wing establishment. After a series of rebuffs by Buckley in effect, warning both privately and publicly that his sister's brilliant husband had become eccentric over the Catholic Thing, Bozell organized Triumph magazine and struck out on his own. For ten years (and a peak subscription list of 30,000) Triumph inveighed against abortion, pornography, and gnosticism, and attracted great thinkers like Jeffrey Hart and Frederic Wilhelmsen.

Then Bozell's mental health began its decline and the break with Buckley became final. Neal Freeman had reported that, "I think Bozell's deterioration hurt Bill more than anybody...Brent simply started to fade, and you could see it happening, but you couldn't do anything about it."

Judis interprets the break as cultural:

(As far as the above Judis explanation is concerned, I believe Judis extends his metaphoric arm at too great a length. Bozell's sickness and his "over the top" Catholicism are discrete issues. Nevertheless the break affected Buckley both personally and politically).

Garry Wills was a Buckley protege.  It all began when Wills sent NR a parody of Time magazine. Both Buckley and senior editor thought the piece great.  Wills, then an Xavier University graduate student, was invited to visit NR.

A close friendship developed. As Judis tells it,

The friendship would end.

Wills wrote a piece on the 1968 ghetto riots for Esquire. He clearly had sympathy for the black militants. He began to oppose the Vietnam War.  Judis quotes Neal Freeman:

His best work, Nixon Agonistes, sealed what was looming with Buckley and NR.  A strong break occurred. Buckley's read of the draft Wills had sent him was not altogether negative. He wrote Wills that the book was exciting politics, but poor cosmology. Frank Meyer, however, if not more perceptive, more clearly nailed Wills' shift from Right to Left, as, "bilious in its view of Mr. Nixon...and the America of self-reliance...the book echoes with the curiously mixed accents of Bayard Rustin, Malcolm X, and Tom Hayden."

As the internecine sniping continued and became more heated as memos were exchanged between Wills and Buckley (and other NR staffers), it was the issue of Catholicism that produced a clear divorce. Judis reports fellow apostate John Leonard as saying:

The break was final. The two shivers, with Bozell and Wills, profoundly affected Buckley. He valued close personal and ideological friendships.

He would develop new friendships as his icon status grew.

And grow it did as contacts were garnered. The Buckley career careened: the run as NYC mayor, the USIA appointment, the UN run, the Firing Line success, the best-selling spy novels, and the charisma -- just a bit affected.

The establishment waited patiently as the son of Old Rightist Will Buckley, coming off the Bozell/Wills disappointments, lunched with Abe Rosenthal, Arthur Gelb, John Chancellor, and others of the respectable Left.

And of course, the Neoconservative switch. Judis reports:

Buckley saw a middle way between the excesses of the Catholic Right and the New Left. He would not return to the Chodorov-Mencken-Nock belief in the Free State. NR would change editorial stance and hunt for staffers not in the tradition of former Leftists turned anti-Statist, like Burnham, but in the now respectable guise of former Leftists turned quasi-statist, like Kristol.

The God and Man at Yale days were over!

As I finished this review, I clicked on a Lew Rockwell piece for the Mises Institute (June 22, 2004). It fuses beautifully with my take on Buckley and should be read as a codicil.

William F. Buckley, Jr., Patron Saint of the Conservatives is available on Amazon.com.

IC's Top 25 Philosophical and Ideological Conservative Books.

Dr. Enrico Peppe is a retired educator who runs the website The Third Way. A widower with too much time on his hands, he spends most of his time reading and thinking about the conservative movement, studying Catholic theology, working on his "Third Way" website, listening to Sinatra and Miles Davis, and admiring Ann Coulter.

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