Dazzler.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)(Brief article)

THE first time I saw Bill Buckley, in early 1955, I knew something was about to happen. Until then the established idea of a conservative was Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio, a man of intellect and integrity but so lacking in charisma that he made Herbert Hoover look like Rudolph Valentino.

In 1955 I was stationed in the Naval Intelligence office in Boston but living in Cambridge near Harvard Yard. Buckley, then famous for God and Man at Yale, was scheduled to debate James Wechsler in the auditorium of Lamont Library. I managed to find a seat in the packed hall.

All heads turned when Buckley and his wife, Pat, walked down the center aisle. She was tall, carried a leopard-skin bag, and wore a large leopard-skin hat. She stole the show until Buckley's first remark after he was introduced.

"I see Professor Schlesinger there in the third row. His books would be dangerous if they weren't so boring." Above his bow tie Schlesinger ...