Life with Bill, Part II

Revisiting William F. Buckley Jr.

Photo by Marcel Eberle on Unsplash

Dear readers: This week marks the centennial of William F. Buckley Jr., born on November 24, 1925. Yesterday, I began a series, composed mainly of correspondence with WFB. Part I, here, opens with an introductory note. This second part, we will just jump into, without ceremony.

August 15, 1999:

Jay: Three things. 1) Your piece on Rice absolutely first-rate! Informative, breezy, just the proper detachment. 2) On thinking about the HAK dinner, I am prompted to break the rules (no spouses qua spouses) and wonder if Mrs. N. would like to come? ... 3) I am going nuts trying to communicate with [someone he could not get in touch with] ...

“Rice” would have been Condoleezza Rice, then an adviser to Candidate George W. Bush, the governor of Texas. “HAK” was Henry A. Kissinger. The phrase “no spouses qua spouses” was so Bill.

Later that day:

Yes, wht a DUMB typoe that was!!! [Not sure which typo that referred to.] I thought the Rice piece was so good I redad a coule paragraphsof it outloud at dinner.

(As I mentioned in my introductory note yesterday, I will not often leave Bill’s missives in the raw, but sometimes I will, for fun.) (My piece on Condi Rice, all those years ago, is here.)

***

September 4, 1999:

“I am an Orgburo man, Bill”—I never forgot it.

Let me “unpack” this, as people say today. In 1956, the editors of National Review were debating whether to back Eisenhower’s bid for reelection. Whittaker Chambers said, “I’m an Orgburo man, Bill.”

Chambers had been a Communist, and, indeed, a spy for Soviet military intelligence. The “Orgburo” was the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party.

What Chambers was saying to WFB was: Stick with the party.

(I must have brought up Chambers and his view—and his statement—in a note to Bill.)

***

Bill forwarded to me a letter from Harry V. Jaffa—a letter typical of the famous political philosopher’s dyspepsia. That letter itself would be interesting to publish, but I am concentrating on Bill here.

Jaffa was asking for a positive review of his new book in NR. On October 4, 1999, Bill wrote to me,

The covering letter on the little book by Harry Jaffa gives you the scene. I do think we rather shafted him last time around by giving his [previous] book to Bob Bork to review. Jaffa is a very important figure, so I do urge you, if you are making assignments, to give the book to someone who inclines to natural rights. I’d appreciate hearing from you who you’ve chosen and I will then communicate something irenic to Harry.

Bill once made a famous remark—well, he made many, but this one goes, “If you think Harry Jaffa is hard to argue with, try agreeing with him.” By the testimony of many, the man was as impossible as he was brilliant.

***

Also from 10/4/99:

Dear Jay:

That’s a truly wonderful review of Buchanan and his book. How terribly sad that he will be, predictably, unmoved by it. Terrific job.

I had written a review of Patrick J. Buchanan’s A Republic, Not an Empire: Reclaiming America’s Destiny. (I cannot find my review online, but perhaps better Googlers than I can.)

***

For my amusement, Bill sent me his response to a letter from a reader—a letter that ended,

If you can honestly say that you still believe your argument of 1978, that we were correct in returning total control of the Panama Canal to the government of Panama, then please cancel my subscription to National Review and refund my money!

On December 27, 1999, Bill answered,

Dear Mr. [So-and-so]:

Why should I refund your money? Just because you are a horse’s ass? Please advise.

Yours faithfully,
Wm. F. Buckley Jr.

(Bill once titled a book “Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription.”)

***

Also on 12/27/99, WFB wrote to me,

Dear Jay:

The Rachmaninoff Vespers—I had never heard them and they are just what you say, twilight stuff, perfectly beautiful. How sad that he wasn’t a believer.

(I’m not sure about Sergei Rachmaninoff’s religious views. I wonder whether anyone has been.)

***

As I mentioned in my introductory note, I do not have correspondence from whole years. I have nothing, in fact, from the end of 1999 until the middle of 2003. And those missing years were heavy corresponding ones! What happened—why those years are missing—I don’t know.

In any event, I do have a stray memo from 2001—August. One that came in on paper, not via e-mail. I will share a little of the memo with you, because it will afford a glimpse into the inner workings of a magazine, at least as Bill ran one.

For raisons d’état, we need to publish this piece [attached] by [So-and-so]. He does not write well, but is not difficult to re-write.

***

By 2003, we were using a different e-mail system—so I can see my notes to Bill, as well as his to me.

On 8/5/03, I wrote him about various matters, including ...

Have you seen the press reports on the yacht that P. Diddy has rented in the Mediterranean? Incredible. Such a vessel seems impossible.

Bill wrote back, in part,

I know nothing about Mr. Diddy’s boat????

(I think I was yacht-minded, because I had gone on a “Christmas sail” with the Buckleys through Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.) (Been a long time since I thought of yachts!)

***

August 10, 2003:

Jay, I know you are out of the country on one of your glorious musical tours and I will be gone sailing. ... I wonder if I could send you the speech I gave at the Bohemian Grove? Well, I am doing so, and weeks from now you will be free to read it.

Of course, I read it in pretty short order, and wrote to him about it. One of the things I said was,

In reading that speech, I felt that I was given a chance to peek behind a curtain. I enjoyed all the anecdotes—especially, I think, the one about Nixon. What a peculiar mind and character he had (to put it mildly, I realize).

Replied Bill,

Jay, just this second back from cruise, so much enjoyed your e-mail and glad you enjoyed my talk. Nixon—ah, there’s a subject ...

***

On August 24, Bill wrote,

Glad you’re back [from the Salzburg Festival]!!!! Can’t wait to read what you report on the musical situation. But you are equally interesting on the general social situation. It peeves me, that business. But among other things they have not forgotten our treatment of Austria’s president, the U.N. guy [Kurt Waldheim]. Though I think it’s true he was a Nazi prick. Look forward to dining with you tomorrow.

***

August 28:

And of course Otto is an old pal and DEFINITELY a Reaganite!

We had been talking about the Habsburgs. And, above, Bill was referring to the last crown prince.

President Reagan and WFB in the Oval Office on January 21, 1988 (Wikimedia)

***

August 30:

Jay, a brilliant handling of Entführung [Mozart’s opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, i.e., The Abduction from the Seraglio]. Marvelous line, “They are both clothed, which is obviously a problem for Mr. Herheim” [Stefan Herheim, the Norwegian stage director].

***

The New York Yacht Club was giving a dinner in honor of Bill, and I was scheduled to review the opening night of Carnegie Hall on that same evening. I asked Bill to tell me the truth: Was it important to him that I be at the club—to hear his talk, for example—or ...?

Bill:

Jay, ABSOLUTELY not, I have nothing planned to say, it was other people’s idea, they have to do SOMETHING to fill their schedules, so go and write a wonderful piece, which I know you will.

***

Me, on 9/29/03:

P.S. Have also received your note re [something we had published in the magazine]. Not sure I got the point.

Him:

I was being derisive.

Ah!

***

Long story short: On a trip, I was unable to retrieve my suitcase from an airline, which meant being without changes of clothes, but which also meant something possibly worse: being without some work materials. (I had packed a good many of these into my suitcase. We dealt with paper then more than we do now.)

Bill:

Ohmygawd, the supreme nightmare, to be without your WORK!!!!! What the f--- is the matter with AA [American Airlines], why does lightning 5 miles away keep them from unloading?

I had also written,

It has been a challenging year, but I have survived. And I think of one of my favorite book titles of all time—it comes from Richard Pipes, and it is about the Cold War: “Survival Is Not Enough”!

Bill:

I know how wretched it has been for you, but you must thank Providence for your wonderful work during that year. It may not console you, but you make a lot of other people informed, entertained, and proud.

***

WFB and I did several Q&As before an audience. Always, I was the questioner, he the answerer—except on one occasion, when we did a session about music in New York.

Years after the fact, I got a hold of his notes for the evening: his introduction of me and the questions he had prepared. One of the questions went like this:

You wrote about Alicia de Larrocha’s penultimate concert, saying about her, “No, she doesn’t play like she once did.” She is not here to say, “Jay Nordlinger doesn’t write AS he once did.”

You went on, “But Mme de Larrocha can convey a wonderful childlikeness, and she handled the [Haydn] concerto nicely. It is perhaps time for her to withdraw, to smell the flowers in some garden, and listen to her many recordings. But she is still herself. She did some exquisite playing in the slow movement of the Haydn.”

Question: Is it absolutely so that artists’ powers attenuate?

Here and now, let me say: I have a more elastic view of the like/as issue than Bill did ...

See you tomorrow, readers and Buckley admirers, and I thank you (and him, of course).