William Frank Buckley Jr. (1925)
He was born on the 24th of November 1925 in New York City, he is an American
author, conservative journalist and commentator in New York City. He founded the
influential conservative political magazine "National Review" in 1955 and the
award-winning television show Firing Line in 1966.
Buckley was born to lawyer and oil baron William Frank Buckley, Sr., who was of
Irish Catholic descent, and Aloise Steiner, who was of Swiss-German descent. The
sixth of 10 children, young Buckley moved with his family to Sharon,
Connecticut.
He soon moved to Paris where he attended first grade and learned French. As a
boy, Buckley developed a love for music, horses, swimming, hunting,
story-telling and the importance of his religious faith; all of which would be
reflected in his later writings.
In 1943, Buckley attended the University of Mexico. The following year, he
joined the U.S. Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. When World War
II ended in 1945, he enrolled in Yale University and was an active member of the
Conservative Party and of the Yale Political Union, and served as Chairman of
the Yale Daily News.
Buckley graduated from Yale in 1950.
In 1951, Buckley was recruited into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where
he served for less than one year.
In 1951 Buckley's first book, "God and Man at Yale", was published. The book was
a critique of Yale University.
He then worked as an editor for The American Mercury in 1951 and 1952 before
founding National Review in 1955, a voice of conservatism of all kinds that he
edited for many years.
In 1965, he ran for mayor of New York City as the candidate for the newly formed
Conservative Party because of his dissatisfaction with the very liberal
Republican candidate John Lindsay. Buckley finished third with 13 percent of the
vote.
Buckley is the author of a series of novels featuring the character of CIA agent
Blackford Oakes. He also has written several books on communicating, writing,
history, political thought and sailing.
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