William F. Buckley, Jr., R.I.P.

There are three books to which I will be eternally grateful for shaping the way I think, the way I analyze conflicting truth claims. One of them was written by William F. Buckley, Jr., the revered founder of National Review magazine, who passed away yesterday at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, at the age of 82.

To this day I remember bolting up in my chair, jarred out of my lazy, sloppy thinking by Buckley's point-by-point parsing of a particular dubious claim. Wow, so this is what it means to "think critically."

There are positions--even on facets of the life issues--with which we would part company. But there was so much to learn from Buckley, beginning with his generosity towards his intellectual opponents, even as he meticulously dismantled their arguments.

Buckley qualifies for the much-overused description of "larger than life." For many years, beginning with the founding of National Review in 1955, it seemed as if Buckley could not possibly sleep, so prodigious was his output.

According to obituaries published today, Buckley wrote at least 45 books and edited five more. "The more than 4.5 million words of his 5,600 biweekly newspaper columns, 'On the Right,' would fill 45 more medium-sized books," according to the New York Times.

Many readers of TN&V are far too young to remember this, but Buckley's Firing Line program was the longest-running television show with the same host--1,429 episodes long, in fact. As someone who prides himself on working hard, this makes me feel almost as if I've been on unemployment.

But clearly his greatest legacy, the one anyone would be honored to have, is his legion of intellectual progeny. You would be hard-pressed to come up with a name of someone whose disciples could surpass Buckley's in number, breadth, and depth.

Their tributes today are enormously touching and reveal Buckley's exquisite capacity for both mentoring and friendship. No more fitting ending could be found than this, written by the editors, which appears on the web page of nationalreview.com:

"Before he was a conservative, Buckley was devoted to his family and his Church. He is survived by his son Christopher. Our sadness for him, and for us, at his passing is leavened by the hope that he is now with his beloved wife, Patricia, who died last year."

Bill Buckley will be greatly missed.

Please send your comments to Dave Andrusko at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.