One of the giants of American journalism died this week. William F. Buckley wrote a number of books, but he will be remembered as a television personality and especially as founding editor of The National Review, a magazine that almost single-handedly launched the conservative movement that elected President Ronald Reagan and more recent imitators.
A moving editorial "William F. Buckley, Jr., R.I.P. that appeared soon after his death Wednesday morning and other testimonials are available on the
National Review website. They're written by Buckley's admirers and followers. They have a right to grieve, and they do so with real eloquence.
But Buckley had admirers across the political spectrum, including a lot of people who disagreed with his political views.
One of the best tributes I've seen so far is by cultural affairs writer and critic Julia Keller of The Chicago Tribune. She has no political ax to grind. She's just a perceptive student of American culture, and a very talented writer in her own right. Definitely a byline worth looking for. Keller says Buckley:
... was a wide-minded and perennially curious generalist, a renaissance man in an era that increasingly tended to produce only careful, plodding specialists. He wrote fetching books about his passion for sailing, and spy novels featuring a CIA agent named Blackford Oakes. His book on Barry Goldwater is scheduled to be published in April; he was working on another book at the time of his death, Christopher Buckley said. He was found at his writing desk in his Stamford, Conn., home at about 9:30 a.m.In a way we don't really have anymore, Buckley was a public intellectual and a fixture on television. Says Keller:
That is what Christopher Buckley told President Bush when the latter called Wednesday morning to express his condolences. "I said, 'Mr. President, you're a Texan, and you'll understand this—he died with his boots on.' " Later in the day, a call came from Nancy Reagan, Christopher Buckley said. Then he called former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to tell him the news. "He wept."
On [Buckley's show] "Firing Line," he brought grace, charm and an old-world civility to television, debating the likes of economist John Kenneth Galbraith and novelist Norman Mailer.And we're all the poorer for it.
"Back in the days when the options in the TV universe were smaller," said Rich Heldenfels, a columnist with the Akron Beacon-Journal who has written several books on television history, "it was possible for viewers to encounter those sorts of people, whereas today they're elbowed aside." It is difficult to imagine the politely erudite aura of "Firing Line" in today's world of political coverage on cable TV, a world in which the yelp and the snarl have replaced the thoughtful pause.
I will post links to other articles on Buckley below. The Trib has a very good obituary (the news story) by Scott Kraft of The Los Angeles Times, for starters. Buckley knew how to use the language, and the articles about him will too.
But I think Keller's in the Trib this morning will stand up as one of the best. Read it. Find a sample of Buckley's writing, and compare it to Keller's. She writes like him. She picks up just a little bit of his style, just enough to give a little flavor of it. Then she echoes it -- just enough to be enough and not so much it's too much. Here are a couple of quotes from Buckley:
- I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 pople on the faculty of Harvard University.
- Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.
Blog: Go to the Google news page. Read some of the tributes. Here's one, headlined "On TV, Buckley Led Urbane Debating Club," by Eric Konigsberg in The New York Times. Find some others. What did William F. Buckley contribute to the way we talk about public affairs? Could he compete in today's 24/7 multimedia world? What, if anything, can you learn from him that you can use in your own career?
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