| Title | : | Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0895260891 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780895260895 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 594 |
| Publication | : | First published June 1, 2004 |
Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography Reviews
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"Miles Gone By" by William F. Buckley Jr. is a collection of his essays from over 50 years. He said that “it is material that he brought together with an autobiography in mind using articles, books and his newspaper columns”.
Buckley’s diverse mix of his life-loves, history that includes his youth growing up, his impressive and interesting friends, love of sailing, love of language, music and skiing, are all puzzle pieces in getting to know him better. It would be easy to overlook the uniqueness of this life by labeling the author as mostly reflecting a political point of view.
A favorite chapter was “God and Man at Yale A controversy revisited.” In 1950 this book was considered very controversial in it’s defense of individualism, religion and capitalism. He discussed the 25th anniversary edition of the book where he wrote a comprehensive introduction for the book.
The essays retell the stories that many Buckley followers know well.
In the final chapter “Thoughts on a Final Passage” he likens his life to a voyage not really knowing where it would lead in another 5 years of retirement. He said that “you are moving at racing speed, parting the buttery sea as with a scalpel, and the waters roar by, themselves exuberantly subdued by your powers to command your way through them.” More on this author and book at Web Site
www.connectedeventsmatter.com -
I picked this up at random because I liked the title and have vague, favorable feelings for Buckley as a person. I honestly expected it to be very boring, but I can't put it down. It is really funny and engaging and wonderfully written. My husband says it is ok that I am sort of falling for Buckley now because he is a) brilliant and b) dead. EDIT: I originally began reading this book and wrote this review back in 2011. Not sure why these books are generating in my feed again. I never finished it. And Buckley is fascinating and a great writer, but no getting around that he’s pretentious. 2020 Alexandra is not in love.
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Buckley is one of the few authors whose writing is capable of making anything, anything at all, interesting to the reader. This literary autobiography, as he entitled it, is a delightful overview of the thoughtful man's life, from childhood to his leaving the helm of National Review and preparing to embark upon a final sailing trip around the world with his son. I miss Mr. Buckley, having loved reading his work since I was in middle school, but this brings him back with all of the wit and liveliness, to say nothing of effortlessly elegant turn of phrase, for which he was loved by so many.
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This collection of essays, read by the author, made for pleasant company. Born into a generous and loving family, WFB2 made good use of his gifts and had a wonderful time. Speaking from the mountain top of his unique and lofty perspective, he talks of literature, politics, sailing, skiing, and the making and keeping of friends. To me, it says "go and do likewise."
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The style here struck me as an informal conversation with a friend on the front porch rather than the formal discourse required of a book. The writing was light, if that is possible for Buckley but certainly Buckley, and yet he left the polemics for a different time and place. The chapters were all at once heartfelt, humble and enthusiastic; evident throughout too was his innate goodness, humor and basic good nature.
The book is a collection of 50 essays from early childhood, his first bestselling book as a college senior “God and Man at Yale” -- now God and Man in Heaven – through all of his life adventures of work, friends, colleagues, sailing, music etc, etc. He often made references of his fondness for reading, which I found really neat, and his struggles to find the time in his busy schedule – 70 speaking engagements a year plus his magazine, talk show, etc – to read. He was a man of intellectual and physical élan, of constant motion and action.
I thoroughly enjoyed these essays and whenever my spirits may flag all that is required to “repristinate my fires” is go back and read more of his writing. -
'In short, Miles Gone By is an autobiographical aperitif when what we should have had is the whole roast. Bill Buckley insists that he will not write a real autobiography—is it out of modesty, or is it out of a post molestam senectutem fatigue? A part of the autobiography of John Dos Passos exists in the posthumous publication of his letters. But a full Dos Passos autobiography would have told us much that has not been said about the literary world of the 1920s and the Spanish Civil War. Autobiographical accounts are part of the endless rendition of our divina commedia. And so, though there is much that is good and memorable to read in this volume, and a reminder of what was once before indited, it is not the “literary” account of a man and his life that the cover alleges.'
Read the full review, "Recounting the Miles," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co... -
This is another one where I had the privilege of reading the book and then interviewing the writer, Buckley, on the phone for a profile I was writing of him at the time. No matter what your politics, it's hard to resist enjoying the workings of a brilliant mind. And that's what you get in "Miles Gone By." Buckley is alternately very personal, brilliant, humorous and scathing in indictments of what he considers lazy thinking and outmoded ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with him and reading his book.
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Mr. Buckley calls this a "literary" autobiography and I expect he is accurate in his definition. However, this is just a series of reprinted articles and in some cases, chapters of previously published works. I read it in paperback with no CD. I love his wit and his sailing writing and had hoped for something new. It is kind of a "best of" for those who don't want to read Airborne or Atlantic High or other works which may be out of print.
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Has its moments. Profiles, especially of Whitaker Chambers, are memorable and provide a framework for buckley's insights. Much drift in between in this loosely connected book. The sailing section itself seems to go on forever without adding much. I wonder what would have happened had Buckley started from scratch and spent his considerable powers shaping sentences and scenes to invite us into his life. Rewarmed columns don't quite do that.
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I loved reading this book, and of course my internal voice as I did so was WFB's! I bought this book when it first came out, I think back in 2004, and that edition came with an audio CD with the author narrating various excerpts. I used to listen to it in my car as I drove to school, and my younger brother would groan! My favorite anecdote was the first on the CD, when his sister, Patricia, didn't wave to FDR at her riding competition. "I thought you didn't like him."
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The essays of William F. Buckley Jr. have received much acclaim from leading journalists and conservatives. I am fond of his thoughts and views; however his very extensive flowing vocabulary and high-brow elitist writing style is a bit over the top for me.
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I am not a conservative, but I love William F. Buckley. His insights are worth hearing.
This semiautobiography is organized as a collection of essays and textual fragments gathered from his long and illustrious career. Some of the bits are more interesting than others, but the sheer scope of the material, combined with a firm editorial hand, makes for an epic journey without much extra fluff.
I said without much. Were I blessed with any interest in sailing, I would have given this book five stars. The passion comes through, but so does the obsession. Like the ocean itself, it's too big for its own good, skipper. I'd say skip it.
My favourite bits include the recollections of his childhood and adolescence, the intriguing saga of the divisive university politics at Yale, the passionate love letter to wine, the transcript of the famous Panama debate with Reagan, the copious pages of political and literary gossip, and the amusing asides on a dozen trivialities enlivened with wit and irony. All of it is served with honey; on nigh every page you can taste the sweet and unswerving devotion, by Mr. Buckley, to mastering the peculiar manners, the power and the vocabulary of the English tongue.
Buckley is no saint. While I loathe his Catholic mysticism and warmongering apologetics, there is no conservative I'd rather have around today. He was never anything less than idealistic. He was deadly precise in his reactionary fervour and always honest in his dealings, which gave progressives some healthy target practice - and a good model to emulate on the other side.
Being dangerous enough to be taken seriously is already an impressive, lasting legacy, but this is not the best engraving on his tombstone. No. Buckley's greatest contribution, I believe, was his cultivation, by word and deed, of the power of reasoned debate. He showed us that there is no controversy that cannot be made more tolerable by being placed on the Firing Line. Without "frenemies" like him to keep us straight, the endangered art of civility will sink to the sea with the Titanic and Atlantis. -
“Miles Gone By” is a good, but somewhat disorienting, book. It’s disorienting, first, because it’s disjointed—while divided into chapters covering different topics, it’s actually composed entirely of previously published pieces, without any attempt to knit them together coherently, in time or theme, as would be usual in an autobiography. The result isn’t bad, it’s just different, and that’s disorienting.
But the book is also disorienting for another reason. It is very much a book about people, not issues or events. And the people in it—political, literary, academic, etc.—are generally spoken of in the present tense, because they were very much “of the moment” when each piece in the book that mentions them was written, from the 1950s onward. A more typical autobiography looks backward, and places each person, whether implicitly or explicitly, in his time. At every point in “Miles Gone By,” it is the eternal present.
What results is a sense of disorientation, because, for the most part, these people who figure so significantly in the book, as colossi of their time—are forgotten. Oh, sure, they’re not all totally forgotten, though some are. But they don’t matter anymore, except, perhaps, in the memories of aging Baby Boomers. And many of them mean nothing at all, for those who knew them are all dead, and they are little different to most of us than most of the famous men of Lincoln’s time.
Let’s just pick a few names. Richard Abplanalp. One of Richard Nixon’s closest friends, or so Wikipedia tells me in a short entry. He invented the modern aerosol valve and is introduced as someone well-known. Walter Cronkite—sure, people know generally who he was, but despite what aging hippies may tell you, he is not relevant to today (and in retrospect, Cronkite was a vain, over-rated, silly, pernicious man). Adam Clayton Powell. Who was he, exactly? Wikipedia is your friend. John Kenneth Galbraith, apparently the Paul Krugman of his time, and forgotten as Krugman will be. John Lindsay, miserably failed and largely forgotten mayor of New York City (and his even-more-forgotten opponent, Abe Beame). And on and on, a long march of faded men.
Of course, there are exceptions to this obscurity—Presidents appear, and there appear, naturally given Buckley’s professional career, many highly relevant conservative figures, though they, of course, are also unknown to today’s larger culture. But certainly Whittaker Chambers is a much more important historical figure than Walter Cronkite or Adam Clayton Powell, regardless of who is remembered by more people at this remove.
That doesn’t mean these people shouldn’t be in the book. My point is that the organizational structure of the book does not weigh these people as they would be weighed in a normal autobiography, and that disorients the reader. The book works as time capsule and as a way to understand what Buckley thought and emphasized, by his choices. It is just strange to read. Not bad. Just strange.
As L.P. Hartley said, the past is a foreign country. It is a shame there is nobody like Buckley now. But there could not be. Buckley, as were the players in his book, was a creature of his time. And that was a time when serious people ran the country, who were expected to justify themselves to God and man by cogent and logical argument. Failure to do so would make you a laughingstock, not a martyr. Appealing to the supposed “privilege” of your opponent in lieu of reasoning would have gotten you a blank stare or, more likely, a well-deserved fist to the face, followed by psychiatric treatment. Today, the dominant voices in our culture look at the shoulders of giants, and instead of climbing them to stand on them, instead demand they be torn down as symbols of oppression, privilege and imperialism.
This denouement is because we let come to power bands of aging hippies, disciples of Alinsky and interested in power, not reason, whose logical and inevitable endpoint (for now—it can get worse) is Obama. That descent, combined with the coarsening of American popular culture, where the base interests and desires of the free-spending and ever-more-numerous members of the lower classes dictate that the focus and spending be on myriad atrocities like reality TV, the Kardashians and rap “music,” leaves no room for the leadership of intelligent public intellectuals, particularly when they are wealthy and borderline pretentious, like Buckley. Too bad.
True public intellectuals are now disfavored regardless of the political view of the public intellectual. Really, what public intellectuals are there today who are known outside of very narrow circles, or who have power? (Hacks like Paul Krugman and other members of the NYT editorial team are not public intellectuals, whatever they may think.) For example, today’s conservatives are not Buckley or Chambers, or any of the others mentioned in “Miles Gone By.” They mostly lack any philosophical depth, and are either shallow populists (any TV conservative) or deeper men focused on the pugilism the times require (Breitbart, dead now; Schlichter). Sure, there are some deep thinkers in the public eye today (Douthat, Dreher)—but that the former is a voice crying in the wilderness and the latter spends his days planning mass conservative withdrawal from society merely proves my point. Today, Donald Trump is known and has power, and like the demagogue Cleon in ancient Athens, he intends to use it, and not with prudence. The recent documentary “Best Of Enemies,” showcasing the TV debates of Buckley and Gore Vidal, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, shows this clearly. The debates were mainstream TV, shown every night to the entire network audience. The masses would not watch that now, and if they did, it would be to criticize without understanding the players and their styles. The march toward “Idiocracy” continues, and Buckley would not fit, as every word of this book shows.
Oh, of course, the writing in “Miles Gone By” is excellent. The stories are engaging, and despite that the people mostly no longer matter and are barely remembered, interesting (though Buckley’s unapologetic pursuit of the pursuits of the wealthy grates in today’s egalitarian mode). The book is worth reading, but, sadly, reading it is like viewing a fly in amber—a limpid, frozen memory of a time beyond reach. -
A wonderful compendium of Buckley's considerably literary achievements. He is a lovely and variegated writer with interesting things to say about most subjects. There was too much sailing here for me, but beyond that Buckley's literary flare, his considerable ability to turn a phrase, and his playful sense of humor are alone worth the price of admission. That he's also the most formidable American conservative intellectual of the second half of the 20th Century makes for an especially entertaining read.
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A series of essays on Buckley's favorite topics and biographical episodes in his zany life, Miles Gone By is the closest we'll get to an auto-biography. It also serves as a great introduction to him as a sailor, a novelist, a politician, and a family member in addition to the Editor of National Review and host of Firing Line. Recommend you actually listen on Audible as he personally narrates it, which is a treat. For weeks I've commuted with him, listening to his stories and perspectives as if he were sitting next to me, and it has been endlessly fascinating.
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Better than a traditional biography. Known for his wit and intellect, This book provides a sampling of his knowledge and experience ranging from writing, to sailing, to singular, extraordinary adventures...all told in his inimitable style.
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This book is just like what another reviewer said that even if you don't agree with him even if you're not interested in the subject like sailing, it's just a wonderful book and he makes every single aspect interesting and compelling to read. One way or another, this is a great book.
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A book of published essays about Buckley and his friends. A little heavy on sailing articles, but if you like WFB, this book is full of treats.
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This is a good read when you are looking to better your grammar or increase your vocabulary. At times it can be a bit dry, as many of the essayist's subjects are from a time well past.
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https://bilber99.blogspot.com/2005/06... -
I enjoyed this biographical book, of the writings of William F. Buckley, Jr. I enjoyed that the difficult-words issue was less present in this book than in others he wrote. The humor was great!
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William F. Buckley, Jr. never wrote a conventional autobiography. The closest he came was his 2004 book Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography, in which he collects his favorite writings that are about him personally. Miles Gone By is a fantastic book, and it’s an essential read for anyone who is interested in learning more about Buckley’s life. Despite Buckley’s reputation as one of the main intellectuals behind the modern American conservative movement, politics do not play a large part in Miles Gone By. Miles Gone By is really about the man behind the politics, and partisans of either stripe can enjoy Buckley’s wit, joie de vivre, impressive vocabulary, and generous spirit, all of which are on full display.
True to Buckley’s professed list of his joys in life, the section on sailing is the longest one in the book. Buckley’s passion for sailing comes through clearly on every page. It’s kind of amazing that this multi-hyphenate of a man was able to take the time to unwind and actually take a vacation.
Buckley was well known for being generous to his friends, and there are numerous examples of this throughout Miles Gone By, especially in a section entitled “Ten Friends” where Buckley describes briefly the first time he met ten famous friends. I think only William F. Buckley could name David Niven, Ronald Reagan, Tom Wolfe, Roger Moore, and John Kenneth Galbraith among his closest friends. Buckley was also well known for his finely penned obituaries, which he crafted for his magazine National Review, and there are some superb examples of those included in Miles Gone By as well.
Throughout Miles Gone By, I was struck by what a rich and full life William F. Buckley lived. He was truly a renaissance man. There’s an essay about Buckley playing a Bach concerto with a symphony orchestra. There’s an essay about Buckley descending down to the Titanic in the tiny French submarine Nautile, at a time when he was one of only about one hundred people in the world to have seen the wreck. There’s an excerpt from Buckley’s book The Unmaking of a Mayor, which chronicled his unsuccessful run for mayor of New York City in 1965. One of Buckley’s greatest quips was when someone asked him what he would do if he won the election. His response? “Demand a recount.”
“My Own Secret Right-Wing Conspiracy” is a very entertaining essay about Buckley’s involvement in the John T. Gaty Trust. John T. Gaty was a wealthy Republican from Wichita, Kansas, who set up a trust fund to distribute part of his estate to organizations that were politically conservative. Gaty named some of the most prominent Republicans in the country as the trustees of his trust. That list included Buckley, Barry Goldwater, John Tower, Strom Thurmond, Edgar Eisenhower, Dwight’s more conservative brother, and J. Edgar Hoover. The trust began in 1967, and part of the stipulation of the trust was that the trustees would meet in person in Wichita to vote on how to allocate the funds. Amazingly enough, for seven years, everyone attended in person. (Hoover withdrew from the trust before the first meeting, as he made it a practice to not accept any trusteeships.) Buckley contends that the Gaty Trust played a key role in helping the conservative movement spread, as the trustees allocated a considerable amount of money to different organizations.
My one criticism of Miles Gone By is that Buckley doesn’t always tell us where the pieces are from. Is this an article he wrote for a magazine? Does it come from a book of his essays? Is it something new he wrote just for the book? But that’s a small quibble for such a delightful book.
William F. Buckley was, first and foremost, a writer, and Miles Gone By proves that he was a damn good one. One of my favorite quotes from the book is this one: “Art of any sort is very, very serious business: that which is sublime can’t be anything less.” (p.16) -
Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography is the closest that William F. Buckley, Jr., ever came to an autobiography in his lifetime. After having retired from the journal he founded, National Review, the conservative icon seemed to realize that his days on the earth were winding down, that he was in the “twilight of his life”, so to speak.
With the above thought in mind, Buckley decided to compile certain of his columns from over the years to create a narrative of some of his experiences in his life. The reason for this decision is two-fold. First of all, he wasn't sure how long he would have to write an autobiography, or the energy to do so. Therefore, he took a more feasible approach via compiling past essays. The second reason is that he felt that, if he wrote an autobiography, he would simply be reiterating statements he had already made. What is the point of that?
The idea did work surprising well, I must say. With the introductions to each section and column/series of columns (depending on the case or subject matter), Buckley does, in fact accomplish the stated purpose. Via these pieces reprinted in this book, a relatively complete picture of the life of Bill Buckley is woven for the reader.
There were some issues, to be sure. Buckley chose and included perhaps a tad too much space to columns where he had written about people he knew in his life. He was a caring man, by all that was said about him, and it shows here. It's a little hard to begrudge these reminiscences in a man at his point of his life, and I don't really do so, per se. I just think it weakened the book a bit.
The other issue is really one that is subjective, even more so than the above possible criticism. This is that Buckley did not spend more than a few words on the issue of his own mortality. To talk of this very much would arguably have been morbid, so one can understand him not doing so. On the other hand, he did, in fact, reference it, so some more words may be preferred by some people. I didn't care, really, to be honest, but some might.
This was a touching final collection of pieces by this conservative icon, and well-worth reading for any fan of Buckley, anyone interested in conservative philosophy, and those just interested in politics in general. -
I'd really like to give this book a 3.75. It's an odd autobiography, as it focuses on the things most personal to the author (sailing, skiing, critics) and not on what the typical reader would prefer (events, NR, Firing Line) to read the most about. While he writes about growing up in his large family, there is little mention of his wife and son, and only a few about his siblings as adults.
The long section on Yale I found the most thought provoking. It's interesting that at least some critics of [I]God and Man at Yale[/I] admitted 20 or 30 years after the fact that Buckley was correct and they had been wrong. The best line in the whole book, and one that I'm still digesting is this, "[I]I believe that the duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world. I further believe that the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level.[/I]"
One criticism I had of NR over the years has been their return to the topic of Alger Hiss decades following his just imprisonment. As a reader I'd roll my eyes at each year's several Hiss articles. The well-practiced eye rolls are applied to this book as well, with Whittaker Chambers' impact on Buckley made all too clear, repeatedly. Buckley was friends with Reagan and most of Reagan's cadre, but they are hardly mentioned, but Chambers is mentioned dozens of times.
It's beautifully written, as we expect from Buckley. Many of the anecdotes are terrific, but this reader feels there should be twice as many included.
One photograph is incorrectly captioned. My internal red pen shook with a passion. -
William F Buckley Jr. was a brilliant conservative polemicist. Indeed, he founded the modern conservative movement in America. And in this delightful book, he shares his reflections--mostly a collection of previously published articles--on the "Miles Gone By" in his life.
The first third of the book is a little dull, however, for anyone uninterested in sailing, one of Buckley's passions. But after that the book picks up.
It offers anecdotes and commentary on some of the most interesting and influential Americans of the 20th century, including John Kenneth Galbraith, Milton Friedman and Whittaker Chambers.
Surprisingly, for a book that purports to offer the memoirs of a leading figure in American politics, the book is not especially political. It makes clear, of course, that Buckley was a conservative and explains why--Buckley emphasizes his deep distrust of centralized authority and points convincingly to the spectacular failures of the Soviet Union and other communist states as evidence for his view.
But any given chapter is as likely to share with the reader Buckley's thoughts on wine or the proper use of the comma as on tax policy or detente.
Everyone with an interest in American politics ought to read this book. Buckley espoused his views with a force, an eloquence and a penchant for polysyllabicism that no pundit has matched since.
