William F. Buckley died in his Connecticut home today, at age 82. Some consider him the founder of modern conservatism, as he authored the seminal book in 1951 God and Man at Yale, in response to what he saw was an encroaching secularism at one of the nation's top universities, during what was considered one of the nation's most buttoned-down eras.
In fact, Buckley was prescient in foreseeing the social revolution of the 1960s. After publishing his first book as a 25-year-old, Buckley would go on to found National Review, a political magazine that served as a counterweight to established publications of the same genre like The New Republic. He even ran for mayor of New York in 1965 (Republican John Lindsay ultimately defeated Democrat Abe Beame).
Although not as frequently published as his liberal literary antipode, Gore Vidal, Buckley remained an active participant in what would become known as the "culture war." He and his wife, Pat, who died last year, were also active in NYC's social circuit. Their son Christopher became a successful author in his own right, lampooning the very divisions that his father highlighted. The National Review, which maintains its offices on the west side of Manhattan in the 20s, wrote today:
He retained his intellectual and literary vitality to the end; even in his final years he was capable of the arresting formulation, the unpredictable insight. He presided over NR even in his “retirement,” which was more active than most people’s careers. It has been said that great men are rarely good men. Even more rarely are they sweet and merry, as Buckley was.
Here is Buckley's archive of National Review articles.
