Family Life:
Buckley was born Nov. 24, 1925 in New York City as the sixth of 10 children in a Catholic family. His father was an oilman and his brothers and sisters were all highly successful. He was married in 1950 to Patricia "Pat" Taylor, with whom he had a son, Christopher Buckley, in 1952.
Early Politics:
Buckley's conservatism began with his family's politics and continued with his opposition to the legacy left by Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. After serving in the Army, Buckley went to Yale where he graduated in 1950 after calling for the firing of several faculty members. He soon began arguing for a conservatism based on high morality and traditional values. In 1951, after being yanked from delivering an alumni-day speech, Buckley wrote a scathing criticism of the university in a book, and offered the publisher $10,000 to advertise it. After serving briefly in the CIA, he took a job at
American Mercury magazine.
Rise to Literary Prominence:
Buckley left the magazine not long after he was hired to begin writing on his own. As a writer, Buckley rose to national prominence, the result of several controversial editorials, which glistened with his trademark sparkling vocabulary, and a book he wrote with his brother-in-law. In 1955, Buckley founded the
National Review, which stood for conservative ideologies, not political partisanship. Nevertheless, in 1960, Buckley was energized and inspired by the Arizona Sen.
Barry Goldwater. Buckley rejected hatred masquerading as conservatism, though he himself was occassionally criticized for writing racist editorials.
"Firing Line":
From 1966 to 1999, Buckley hosted the conservative talk show "Firing Line." From foreign policy to feminism, Buckley used more than 1,000 shows as personal platforms to air his political ideologies. His guests included top political leaders, as well as pundits, authors, entertainers and artists. The show was almost single-handedly responsible for forwarding the modern conservative movement and reached its zenith in the 1980s under Republican President Ronald Reagan, who reflected many of Buckley's values. In the 1970s, Buckley began publishing fiction, writing 11 novels and historical dramas.
Political Activism:
While largely avoiding public service himself, Buckley's brother, James, was a New York Senator. The only public service Buckley ever participated in himself was as a presidential appointee on the National Advisory Commission on Information from 1969 to 1972, and as a UN delegate in 1973. In 1965, he ran for mayor of New York in a joke campaign on the Conservative Party ticket. Whether he ever had aspirations of elected office was inconsequential and Buckley knew it; his controversial commentary precluded even entertaining the notion of a campaign. Nevertheless, his opinions shaped the campaigns of many others.
Death:
On Feb. 27, 2008, Buckley died at his desk, reportedly from complications of diabetes and emphysema. His contributions as a conservative commentator, writer and editor are unparalled in modern journalism. According to his friend and fellow writer,
Paul Gottfried, Buckley spent much of his life as a
neoconservative, but died a
paleocon.
