Product Description

Here is a unique collection of fifty years of essays by William F. Buckley, Jr. chosen to form an unconventioanl career as the consevative writer par excellence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208316 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The conservative writer and Firing Line host has published so many millions of words in five decades of polemics and public musing that amassing a sort of autobiography required little more than sandwiching a selection of 50 essays between a brief preface and epilogue. The extracts range in subject from his silver-spoon boyhood and boarding-school days to the lives and deaths of the many prominent people he has known. Fame came early, with Buckley's 1951 God and Man at Yale, excerpted here, which lambasted liberal bias at elite American colleges. (Far superior, though, is the sparkling memoir of his war-veteran class of 1950 at Yale.) An instant darling of conservatives who needed a spirited new voice, Buckley founded the National Review, whose writers became the core of his widening circle of influential acquaintances. While sailing, touring and media punditry take up much of the collection, the most memorable pieces are about such offbeat friends as the tragic Whittaker Chambers. Nevertheless, some portraits are merely laudatory epitaphs. Approaching 80, Buckley notes that his sporting days are about over, but "[s]o to speak, I can still ski on a keyboard." Like skiing, his keyboard has its ups and downs. B&w photos.
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From the Publisher
This book includes a free audio CD featuring 48 minutes of excerpts read by William F. Buckley Jr. and each introduced by the legendary voice of Walter Cronkite.

From the Inside Flap
Miles Gone By is a landmark literary event: the autobiography of William F. Buckley Jr., woven from personal pieces composed over the course of a celebrated writing life of more than fifty years.

Here is Buckley the boy, growing up in a family of ten rambunctious children, with a saintly mother and spirited father; Buckley the daring young political controversialist and enfant terrible whose debut book, God and Man at Yale, was a shocking New York Times bestseller; Buckley the editor of National Review, widely hailed as the founder of the modern conservative movement; Buckley the politician and mischievous humorist; Buckley the proud father and devoted husband; Buckley the spy and novelist of spies; and Buckley the yachtsman and bon vivant.

Along the way, you'll be treated to Buckley's romance with wine, his love of the right word, his intoxication with music, and his joy in skiing and travel.

You'll also meet Buckley's friends: Ronald Reagan, "zestfully concerned for the company of others"; Henry Kissinger "amusing, curious, ever-so-lightly irreverent"; Clare Boothe Luce, "a renowned beauty and man of affairs (a feminist, she stoutly resisted the stylistic effronteries of she-speech)"; Tom Wolfe, with "a trace of a Virginia accent, and of course there is the renowned diffidence, the matador taking tea with his mother"; John Kenneth Galbraith, who "consistently writes pleasant tributes to my own books, inevitably advising the reader that my political opinions should be ignored, my fiction or accounts of life at sea appreciated"; David Niven, of whom "my wife suspected that his magic was to induce a whim, so that he could gratify it"; and many others.

This unforgettable work paints a wonderful and indelible picture of an extraordinary man and his extraordinary life.

Customer Reviews

Erudite. Urbane. Witty. Historical.
MILES GONE BY is a compilation of William F. Buckley essays, columns and anecdotes which tell the story of his life. His writings are so prolific that the better parts of his life had already been chronicled, by himself no less, prior to his death.

I began reading National Review in 1978 as a young liberal college student. Buckley was my cure for liberalism along with the practical demise of liberal theology under Carter. He was also a mentor and hero, of sorts, as the Reagan Era was ushered in and the world changed. I dug deep into Buckley's lore reading the Blackford Oakes novels, his journal at the United Nations, and his sailboat chronicles (AirBorne and Racing Through Paradise).

WFB was a classic conservative voice at a time when conservatism had few national voices. Goldwater, Reagan, Milton Friedman, Gingrich and others would emerge as leaders but Buckley was always the apologist for the right. His bully pulpits were the National Review and Firing Line television program. At times I wondered if he befriended people like John Kenneth Galbraith to keep them busy while conservatives were busily furthering their agenda.

Besides being the voice and conscience of the conservative movement in America, Buckley will be remembered for his civility. He was a gifted host and debater who confronted and entreated opponents with grace, tact, and utmost civility. He raised the national debate to a higher level of discourse.

America is poorer for his passing.

A joy to Read
When I was a kid, William F Buckley was a hero of my weekend TV, always the wordsmith, always clear, learned, and completely vicious in his rhetoric. This book compiles (mostly short) writings on a variety of topics, many quite personal, that show a loving son/husband/father, a wine aficionado, and a very warm human being. The writing is great: it is a joy to see those un-split infinitives, those real latin-rooted words, those well-crafted sentences. What comes across is a genuine man, one of towering intellectual power, who also worried about what his dad would do when he found out that he had bought a plane at college. If for no other reason, buy this book to enjoy (and inspire) great writing.
By the way, I do not agree with him on any topic, perhaps excepting wine (buy cheaply, drink with friends).

Requiem for a Heavyweight....
William F. Buckley Jr. is now in his 80's and visibly winding up his affairs of this world. National Review, the magazine of conservative opinion that he founded and led for half a century, has been turned over to newer hands. Blackford Oakes, hero of a series of spy novels, has been heroically killed off. His production of public commentary is down to a few columns per month. 2004's "Miles Gone By", subtitled "a literary autobriography", is of a piece with this process. It is a collection of essays from his writing lifetime, with items about his childhood, his education at Yale, his time in the Army, his adventures as a sailor, portraits of colleagues and friends, and a sampling of other topics.

Buckley has lived a fairly public life as an advocate for the Conservative point of view. "Miles Gone By" may therefore have no surprises for any future biographer. What the reader does find is William F. Buckley Jr at his finest, an educated and often witty observer of his world, pondering the moment and its meaning, finding delight in the skillful use of the English language. Also on display is Buckley's irreverance for the stuffy and the unsound. Highlights include a thoughtful essay on the 50th reunion of his Yale Class, a rueful account of an extended rail trip through Siberia, and brief sketches of his friendships with David Niven and Whittaker Chambers. An extended piece on "God and Man at Yale" recalls the book that started it all.

This book is highly recommended to fans of Mr. Buckley, who will enjoy this fine sampling of his work, perhaps the last to be put out by his own hand.