Books

Reagan I Knew

  • Publisher: Basic Books
  • Pub. Date: October 2008
  • ISBN-13: 9780465009268
  • Sales Rank: 4,683
  • 240pp

Synopsis

An intimate portrait of Ronald Reagan, by his political mentor, ally, and friend.

Karl Helicher - Library Journal

Buckley, the icon of conservative intellectuals, founder of the National Review and host of Firing Line, wrote almost 50 books and completed most of this one before his death. It offers a compilation of his correspondence with Ronald and Nancy Reagan during a friendship that began in 1961, narratives about Reagan's entire political career, a sampling of Buckley's columns, and an engaging foreword by Buckley's son, the popular novelist Christopher Buckley. The book does not live up to its promotional copy as "the most revealing portrait of Ronald Reagan the world is likely to have," because Ronald Reagan's responses to Buckley's letters are focused on politics and daily events and less introspective than they are humorous. Nevertheless, Buckley has written an enjoyable account of the Reagan years and the camaraderie he shared with the Reagans. He concludes that Reagan's legacy is his opposition to big government, his role in the fall of the Soviet Union, and his having been the nicest person to have been President. Recommended for most public libraries.

Biography

William F. Buckley Jr. (1925—2008) was the author and editor of over fifty works of fiction and nonfiction. The founder and former editor-in-chief of National Review and former host of “Firing Line,” he was one of the intellectual leaders of the right from the 1950s until his death in 2008. His syndicated column, “On the Right,” was begun in 1962. He served as a CIA agent in the early 1950s, helped found the Young Americans for Freedom in 1960, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H.W. Bush in 1991. His most recent work of nonfiction, Flying High, an appreciation of Barry Goldwater, was published by Basic Books in 2007.