“Getting About”
William F Buckley Jr
The Wall Street Journal “Books and Art” section is an excellent source of cultural recommendations, particularly when experiencing a brain cramp on your next summer beach read. They identify new releases, both fiction and non-fiction and the reviews are energetic, frank, and concise. They can convince you to venture into genres that you normally avoid or ignore. They can encourage you to take risks. They also do an admirable job with music releases, concerts, art shows, museum exhibits, theatre, movies and television. I endorse the page with enthusiasm.
A blessing of regular reading is the discovery of new and emerging authors, people without a record or a resume. Writers who are adept and facile with language and character development and creative enough to blend these elements into a wonderful story, and savvy and mature enough to convince a publisher to give them an opportunity. Less obvious, but equally rewarding is doing a “REASSESSMENT” of authors previously encountered, but who have been exiled to your reading waiting room for years or even decades. Perhaps, an author's early work that bored you, maybe a writer who intrigued you in your 20’s but with a late onset of maturity, horrified you in your 40’s. Most likely, in the age of over-stimulation, they simply got lost in the wash. A recent WSJ book review prompted me to complete one of these reassessments. The author is William F. Buckley and the book is Getting About - a series of Buckley travel essays from 1970-2005, edited by Bill Meehan. No teasers here - a lovely book.
Why Buckley and why the need for a re-assessment? He was born in 1937. His father was an Irish-Catholic American lawyer who eventually operated a successful oil/mineral engineering firm. Dad got rich! Mother was a Southern Belle of Swiss-German descent. She was classy. Buckley was one of ten children - Irish “prolific” on family creation. He was precocious -fluent in Spanish, French, and English by his twelfth birthday. His father communicated with him by memoranda -very goal oriented. The family was affluent, international, and sophisticated, but they also created an insular, protected, self absorbed bubble at their Connecticut home. Something Kennedy-like! Private schools and Yale for Bill Buckley followed by a short stint for the CIA in Mexico. He and his siblings received an enormous financial inheritance so money or making ends meet was never a concern. His wife, Pat, became a social doyenne and renowned host in New York. Son, Christopher, is a successful writer. His brother, James, died this week at 100 after serving as a United States Senator, Director of Radio Free Europe and Federal Appellate Court judge. A formidable group - intimidating background. Eventually, W. F. Buckley authored 57, fiction and non-fiction and thousands of essays and articles.
I first discovered Buckley in the 1960’s. He founded the National Review in the 1950’s. His magazine promoted the re-birth of the conservative idea in America - a movement that had almost disappeared after the Great Depression and the FDR presidency. He wrote God and Man At Yale as an undergraduate and was explicitly critical of the liberal bias of the faculty and the moral and cultural decline of the university population overall. He was an iconoclast - definitely politically “incorrect” in the 1950’s. He was also controversial and his essays in the National Review attacked sacred cows. He endorsed the maintenance of “Jim Crow” laws in the south, asserting that white southerners had a constitutional and moral right to protect their way of life. He opposed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. He was virulently anti-Soviet and opposed détente. He was provocative and frequently wrong. He was pro deregulation, anti progressive taxation, and the brains behind what became the Reagan Revolution in the 1980’s. Most of the elite classified him as a “reactionary.”
My early introduction to Mr. Buckley was courtesy of my father William F. Mahoney, Sr. He was a conservative chap; warm, kind, decent, loving - but VERY traditional. Concerned about my overall development, he gave me a book gift for Christmas during my high school years. As a freshman, it was Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater. As a sophomore, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Andrew Carnegie. As a junior, Up from Liberalism by William F. Buckley. I read them all and they made no ideological impression on me. I remain committed to justice, fairness, the pursuit of utopia, all to be achieved in a courteous and respectful manner. At Thanksgiving in my senior year, I advised Dad that he had made his point with his book selections and explicitly requested a new set of golf clubs as an alternative for the upcoming Christmas - Dad complied with class and style.
My next experience with WFB was Firing Line, an experimental show on PBS that featured Mr. Buckley interviewing august persons from a wide variety of fields. The intent was to foster dialogue between political and cultural opposites - to stir the pot and retain viewers. It was successful - staying on the air over 1,000 episodes. I loved current events and began to watch the program. Initially my existing distrust of the Buckley persona was enforced and magnified. He possessed an irritating, if unique, personal style. Describing his mis-matched collection of unusual mannerisms or tics is challenging. He would never get hired today! He arched his eyebrows but the movement between the left and right eye were not always synchronized. He fidgeted with his pen, tapped his teeth, smirked at the camera and changed his voice volume and tone at inappropriate times during his questions and the guest’s answers. His vocabulary, while extensive, was affected. He was a “polymath” and projected an attitude of confidence and disdain. He was arrogant, elitist and imperious but it definitely caught on with the audience who loved the drama.
I confess my initial re-assessment began in this period. There were aspects of his character that I began to appreciate - very gradually. He was courteous, affable and witty. He sought to connect with guests based on personal or family history and experience - even as he commenced his assault on his guests’ views. A smiling assassin! I also noticed I was nodding my head in agreement with his arguments on a more frequent basis. He was persuasive. He was refreshing. He challenged orthodoxy. He forced you to examine what you believed and why? He also mellowed and “evolved” (hate that word). He supported conservation and environmental protection and he adjusted his position on civil rights and social justice. He rejected conservative nutjobs like the “John Birchers”. He rejected populism and believed in the electoral process.
Leap forward to 1990. Buckley authored Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe to Our Country (1990). It was a compelling narrative endorsing a system of one year volunteer service for all American citizens over 18. It was not a classic conservative position. It is straightforwardly patriotic and very persuasive - For those who have been given much, much is expected. We need better citizens and owe a debt of gratitude to our ancestors who created and built a country that affords us so much opportunity. Be thankful and contribute your time and talent in education, non-profits, in health or the environment. It should not be mandatory, but society should value and know service - by recognizing it as a positive when considering applications for education and employment. Enshrine service as a cultural plus. Money and riches can follow in due course. Presidents Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama have all pledged to promote national service. Consistent with many other issues - nothing has happened but we can always hope. Kudos to WFB for making the case.
Finally, his own life in his own words. Buckley’s auto-biography, Miles Gone By (2004) is excellent. A faithful description of a happy family, great education, political engagement, commitment to family, a lover of food and wine, the pursuit of adventure and sport through sailing and skiing and a gift for fascinating travel and experience. What a run - beautiful writer.
Finally, Getting About. Thanks for your patience. The book is a tribute to how travel enriches your existence. Buckley published over 100 essays on travel related adventure from 1970 thru 2005. Incredible range and diversity, sailing the world; Bermuda, the Azores, Long Island Sound, the Caribbean, Polynesia, New Zealand, the Mediterranean, and the ATLANTIC (yes - indeed - a global crossing). A talented sailor who clearly loves the craft and who is open about his multiple disasters at sea. Around the world on the Concorde overland without ever flying overland. The Orient Express train thru Trans-Siberia and Trans-Mongolia (no longer on my list). Skiing at Alta, Utah and Gstaad, Switzerland. The best descriptions of commercial air travel and Amtrak train travel ever published - fairly merciless on the foibles of both systems. A gourmand with a regular 6:00 PM cocktail hour on all trips, either on sea or shore. A wine lover with a great palate. Montaigne would travel with Buckley in any era!
It is the spirit in which he brings to his experiences which highlights his mastery of the art of living well. He is a raconteur who loves debates and poetry readings. He has a natural civility which created a gift for friendship. No ideological barriers. He loved John Kenneth Galbraith, the liberal economist and George McGovern, the anti-war democratic presidential candidate. He taught Milton Friedman how to ski - and relax at Alta. Although formal in manner and subject to accusations of being a snob, he was self-effacing, humble, and curious on his road trips. He engaged boat tenders, harbor masters, train conductors, yacht designers, airline pilots, custom officials, border guards - intellectually curious with an eye for the odd detail and appreciation for idiosyncrasy whether in a person or a place.
I recommend the book. It will humble you if you see yourself as a veteran traveler. William Buckely did more - saw more - than any human I have ever encountered. And he wrote with style, beautiful language and shared it all with us. God Bless him. Re-assessment complete.
