Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography (with CD)
by William F. Buckley Jr.
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Book Summary Information
Author: William F. Buckley Jr.Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-07-15
ISBN: 0895260891
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Regnery Publishing, Inc.
Book Reviews of Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography (with CD)
Book Review: A very different kind of Autobiography
Summary: 4 Stars
No one is ambivalent about Mr. Buckley's writing. Either one thinks him one of the greatest composers of English proses since G. K. Chesterton or that he is a befuddled affectatious blowhard. I am most solidly in the first camp as seem most of the other reviewers. But then why should anyone not already smitten by Mr. Buckley's writing ever deign to read this book? They should not. That would be like someone who gets grievous indigestion from romaine lettuce ordering a Caesar salad, because this is quintessential Buckley, intimate Buckley, Buckley comfortable in his own skin.
First, what it is not, and that is a classical memoire, and Mr. Buckley says so at the beginning. He explains that he has written of his life throughout its course (how enviable), so those events recounted close their occurrence are best left described as they already have been. The book is roughly chronological so it starts with some most insightful reminiscences of Mr. Buckley's childhood, brief portraits of his parents, music lessons and the English boarding school on his way to which he saw Neville Chamberlain announce "peace in our time." Did you know Mr. Buckley was an airplane pilot, that he was in an Army honor guard that escorted the body of FDR, that he was in the CIA? Then follows the tale of "God and Man at Yale", the conservative clarion call of a 25 year old counter revolutionary. If you have not read GAMAY you will after you read this book. Mr. Buckley's introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of GAMAY is reproduced here. That essay could serve as the material for the final three weeks of an advanced course on literary critique, pen cum sword sharpest and most accurate.
Then there is the sailing, quite a bit of it really. This is where detractors will sneer and complain about the detachment of the privileged class with all the indignation and snobbery the "my own boot-straps" crowd can muster. I find this section variously charming, relaxing, exciting, humorous and most of all revealing. We all have a place we go to be most ourselves. Mine is underwater; Mr. Buckley's was gliding along on top of it. It is in that place you learn the most about yourself. Someone who has never faced fear and plunged forward anyway will not understand.
The collection of biographies of ten close friends is most fascinating simply for whom it includes, David Niven, Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Princess Grace. Forrest Gump innocently happened upon great historical scenes; Zelig inserted himself nebbishly into them. Buckley was an active participant in one great scene after another. He did not orbit great people so much as they orbited him.
The rest of the book is a mishmash; an explanation of the origins of Blackford Oakes, a poignant homage to Whittaker Chambers, the Firing Line debate with Ronaldus Magnus over the Panama canal, using big words, a trip across Mongolia and Siberia on the Peking to Moscow train, a decent to the deck of the Titanic, running for mayor of New York and much more. The last of the 50 essays is the one Mr. Buckley considered his most enduring "Why Don't We Complain?" This essay is on the web but if you read it you will say "Oh" and go buy "Miles Gone By".
Amazon offers "Miles Gone By" as an Audiobook. I have the hardback because it is marvelously printed, contains explanatory pictures and is enduring - I will probably reread this book every year for the rest of my life. But get the Audiobook too - Mr. Buckley himself reads it. To hear the author's own emotion and emphasis enriches the experience immensely.
But why four stars you ask? Well simply because you can get much of the material in Mr. Buckley's other books. So perhaps that is what you should do; buy every one of Mr. Buckley's other books, read them and skip "Miles Gone By." You will be even better for that exercise.
Summary of Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography (with CD)
Here is a unique collection of fifty years of essays by William F. Buckley, Jr. chosen to form an unconventioanl career as the consevative writer par excellence.Authors Books
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