William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American conservative writer, public intellectual, and political commentator. In 1955, he founded National Review, the magazine that stimulated the conservative movement in the mid-20th century United States. Buckley hosted 1,429 episodes of the public affairs television show Firing Line (1966–1999), the longest-running public affairs show with a single host in American television history, where he became known for his distinctive Transatlantic accent and wide vocabulary.
Born in New York City, Buckley spoke Spanish as his first language before learning French and then English as a child. He served stateside in the United States Army during World War II. After the war, he attended Yale University, where he engaged in debate and conservative political commentary. Afterward, he worked for two years in the Central Intelligence Agency. In addition to editorials in National Review, Buckley wrote God and Man at Yale (1951) and more than fifty other books on diverse topics, including writing, speaking, history, politics, and sailing. His works include a series of novels featuring fictitious CIA officer Blackford Oakes as well as a nationally syndicated newspaper column. Buckley's views varied, and are considered less categorically conservative than those of most conservative intellectuals today. His public views on race rapidly changed from the 1950s to the 1960s, from endorsing Southern racism to eagerly anticipating the election of an African-American to the presidency.
Buckley called himself both a conservative and a libertarian. He is widely considered one of the most influential figures in the conservative movement.
Early life
Childhood
William Frank Buckley Jr. was born William Francis Buckley in New York City on November 24, 1925, to Aloise Josephine Antonia (née Steiner) and lawyer and oil developer William Frank Buckley Sr. (1881–1958). His mother hailed from New Orleans and was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent, while his father had Irish ancestry and was born in Texas to Canadian parents from Hamilton, Ontario. He had five older siblings and four younger siblings. He moved as a boy with his family to Mexico before moving to Sharon, Connecticut, then began his formal schooling in France, where he attended first grade in Paris. By age seven, the family had moved to England and he received his first formal English-language training at a day school in London; due to the family's movement, his first and second languages were Spanish and French. As a boy, he developed a love for horses, hunting, music, sailing, and skiing, all of which were reflected in his later writings. He was homeschooled through the eighth grade using the Homeschool Curriculum developed by the Calvert School in Baltimore. Just before World War II, around the ages of 12 and 13, he attended the Jesuit preparatory school St John's Beaumont in the English village of Old Windsor.
Buckley's father was an oil developer whose wealth was based in Mexico and became influential in Mexican politics during the military dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta, but was expelled when leftist general Álvaro Obregón became president in 1920. Buckley's nine siblings included eldest sister Aloise Buckley Heath, a writer and conservative activist; sister Maureen Buckley-O'Reilly (1933–1964), who married Richardson-Vicks Drugs CEO Gerald A. O'Reilly; sister Priscilla Buckley, author of Living It Up with National Review: A Memoir, for which Buckley wrote the foreword; sister Patricia Buckley Bozell, who was also an author; brother Reid Buckley, an author and founder of the Buckley School of Public Speaking; and brother James L. Buckley, who became a U.S. senator from New York and a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.