Cruising Speed: A Documentary

by William F. Buckley Jr.

Signed by author William Buckley Jr. on a nameplate

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1971

About the author

William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American author and conservative commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing style was famed for its erudition, wit, and use of uncommon words.

Buckley was "arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century," according to George H. Nash, a historian of the modern American conservative movement. "For an entire generation he was the preeminent voice of American conservatism and its first great ecumenical figure." Buckley's primary intellectual achievement was to fuse traditional American political conservatism with economic libertarianism and anti-communism, laying the groundwork for the modern American conservatism of US Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and US President Ronald Reagan.

Buckley came on the public scene with his critical book God and Man at Yale (1951); among over fifty further books on writing, speaking, history, politics and sailing, were a series of novels featuring CIA agent Blackford Oakes. Buckley referred to himself "on and off" as either libertarian or conservative. He resided in New York City and Stamford, Connecticut, and often signed his name as "WFB." He was a practicing Catholic, regularly attending the traditional Latin Mass in Connecticut.

Reviews

[Mark Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

On December 5, 1970, while at a nightclub with Truman Capote, William F. Buckley decided to write a journal covering one week in his life. This experiment ultimately resulted in the highly entertaining book Cruising Speed: A Documentary, published in September, 1971. Buckley would later revisit this same formula in his excellent 1983 book Overdrive.

Cruising Speed covers the week of November 30th to December 6th, 1970. This was an exciting time for Buckley, as the previous month his older brother James was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. Buckley was a uniquely busy man, as he was writing a nationally syndicated newspaper column three times a week, hosting Firing Line, a weekly television show about current events, and editing the bi-weekly magazine that he had founded, National Review.

Buckley encounters many different people throughout the course of the week, from former heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney, who “has been a very old friend and supporter of NR,” (p.27) to Otto Von Hapsburg, heir to the thrones of Austria and Hungary, who asks Buckley “whether I would join a very small organization that meets two or three times a year, in Europe usually, but sometimes in America, to discuss deeply, and off the record, public policies affecting the future of the West.” (p.150) William F. Buckley led a remarkable life, and the nine page index at the end of Cruising Speed gives some idea of his varied pursuits and interests. Someone should really write annotated versions of Cruising Speed and Overdrive, so future readers will know who all of these people Buckley interacts with were, instead of having to constantly look them up on Wikipedia.

One of the more interesting tidbits that came up in the course of Buckley’s week is a letter from Edgar Eisenhower, Dwight’s older brother, concerning the foundation of John T. Gaty. Gaty was a businessman from Wichita, Kansas, who bequeathed a significant part of his estate to a foundation that would support conservative organizations. The trustees that Gaty named to the foundation included Buckley, J. Edgar Hoover, Edgar Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, John Tower, and other prominent conservatives. Incredibly, all of these men meet in Wichita once a year for ten years to distribute money from the foundation. (Hoover never attended, sending an alternate in his place.) Someone should really write a book about the Gaty trust, as a fascinating footnote to the nascent conservative movement.

Buckley’s excellent sense of humor is on display throughout the book, and perhaps my favorite humorous anecdote from Cruising Speed is the story that Buckley tells about a friend of his who was entertaining guests from France. Buckley’s friend turned on Firing Line, as Buckley was interviewing Hugh Hefner. There was a problem with the sound on the TV, so everyone watched in silence. When the sound came on, the French visitors were shocked as they had concluded from the body language of the two men that Buckley was the libertine publisher of Playboy magazine, and Hugh Hefner was the conservative Republican writer. (p.53)

Throughout both Cruising Speed and Overdrive you see how much William F. Buckley enjoyed his life. At the very end of Cruising Speed Buckley writes that his friend John Kenneth Galbraith, the liberal economist, urged Buckley to give up his newspaper column, Firing Line, and National Review, to enter academia and write books. (p.229) Unsurprisingly, Buckley turns down Galbraith’s suggestion. It’s clear that Buckley loved all of the different things that he did, and if he had just focused on one thing, he probably wouldn’t have been happy. I suspect that Buckley enjoyed the challenge of keeping all of those balls up in the air.

I wish that we saw more of how Buckley wrote, but he was able to write so quickly that maybe he didn’t have much to say about his writing process. On the Wednesday covered in Cruising Speed, Buckley is late delivering his column, so he has to go to the offices of his syndicate, which he only does when the column must be written immediately. He writes it in half an hour. There are many excellent passages throughout Cruising Speed, and one concerns dealing with writers and artists as editor of National Review, “…what it comes down to is this-that concerning certain things, everyone is inaccessible to reason, and the trick is to find out what those things are, and simply accept the given in the situation.” (p.6) That’s a great piece of advice, and not just for editors.

After Cruising Speed was published an interviewer asked Buckley “Don’t you think it a bit much to write an entire book devoted to the events of a single week?” Buckley’s tongue in cheek response was “I don’t know. John Keats devoted an entire ode to a single Grecian urn.” (Quote from Overdrive, by William F. Buckley, p.154)I wish more people would write books like Cruising Speed, as I would be fascinated to read what a week in the life of other public figures is like. I suppose that now, in the never-ending news cycles of 2015, one might encounter more resistance to the idea, and get more flack for being so supremely solipsistic. The interesting thing about both Cruising Speed and Overdrive is that while they both look into Buckley’s life, they are not overly confessional. Although Buckley does catalog some personal faults, as he writes, "I do not know why my memory is so bad, or for that matter why I read so slowly." (p.57) I find it difficult to believe that William F. Buckley did anything slowly, but there you have it. Buckley tell us that book critic Isabel Paterson thinks these problems stem from him not learning to read until the age of 6 or 7, which is also when he began speaking English, his first language having been Spanish.

Cruising Speed humanizes Buckley. Even if you disagree with his politics you get to see his incredible work ethic and the humanity that animated his work. As Malcolm Muggeridge once said of Buckley “What Buckley has is a sort of sparkle and grace, equally in his speaking, writing, and television appearances. It is not just a question of agreeing with Buckley. Rather, it is that in our time free minds are desperately rare and precious, and in him I detect one.”

[Tom Stamper · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first of Buckley's two books that follow one week in his life. Much of this one centers on Jim Buckley's recent senate win and Buckley's travel and speaking engagements. Amazing that you could write a witty or thoughtful letter to him and he'd invite you to lunch next time you were in New York. I had no idea who James Burnham or Willmore Kendall was in 1994. The whole book should be boring and yet it's so much fun. It's hard not to enjoy a person with such a zest for life.

[BigHeadWalt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A week in the life (November 1970) of the irreplaceable WFB.

Entertaining, enlightening on how a magazine was run 50 years ago, and includes a speech that could be given tomorrow.
Informative to read the timelessness of the "Conservative" argument as compared to the arguments that come from the other-side.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

one week in the life of Wllliam F. Buckley

to quote the Mark My Words Blog

William F. Buckley Jr.’s 1983 book “Overdrive: A Personal Documentary,” is a fascinating look inside Buckley’s day to day life. “Overdrive” chronicles just a week in Buckley’s life. Specifically, it covers the events in Buckley’s life from November 16, 1981 until November 23, 1981. And during that week, Buckley packs in more than most people could do in a month. “Overdrive” is a follow-up to Buckley’s 1971 book “Cruising Speed,” which followed a similar formula as he chronicled a week in his life in 1970.


Politically, I am very liberal, and there are few areas in which William F. Buckley and I share the same position. That being said, I find Buckley to be a singularly fascinating person. Last year I read his son Christopher’s book “Losing Mum and Pup,” which is a memoir about the deaths of his parents. I was an admirer of Christopher Buckley’s political satire, but “Losing Mum and Pup” blew me away. It’s a fantastic book, funny, warm, sad, and touching all at the same time. As I read “Losing Mum and Pup” I said to myself, “I have to find out more about William F. Buckley, because he sounds like an amazing guy.” I had known of Buckley since I was a kid, even though I grew up in a thoroughly Democratic household. I’m not sure exactly how I knew who William F. Buckley was, but I grew up during the 1980’s, so it was probably just osmosis.


Reading “Overdrive” gave me an appreciation for Buckley’s intelligence and his personal integrity. Buckley had many friends who were liberals, and the fact that they held different political opinions did not affect their friendship. Buckley was tenaciously loyal to his friends, no matter who they were. “Overdrive” also gave me an appreciation for Buckley’s incredible energy and stamina. “Overdrive” takes place during the days just before Buckley’s 56th birthday, yet his schedule would be taxing for a man half his age. Buckley wrote a syndicated newspaper column three times a week, hosted a weekly television show “Firing Line,” and was the editor of the biweekly magazine “National Review.”


It seems peevish to wish for more details in a book that covers just one week in pretty minute detail, but I do wish that Buckley would have provided an hour-by-hour breakdown of his time. I’d like to know: when did he get up? When did he go to bed? How long exactly did it take him to respond to those five letters? How exactly did he allocate his time in order to make the most out of it? In a 1978 interview, Buckley gave the answer to his productivity: “Deadlines. I have deadlines for everything. I find them liberating.” Buckley expounded a little more in a 1983 interview: “I had three deadlines this weekend. And because they simply had to be done, they were done…The people I pity are not the people who have deadlines, they’re the people who don’t have deadlines.” That sounds easy enough, right?


It’s obvious from “Overdrive” that Buckley made the most of every moment. Even during “down” time he is always working on something, even if it’s just responding to his mail. And Buckley frequently responded to his mail as he was being driven around in his limousine. This brings us to the somewhat touchy subject of William F. Buckley’s limousine. In the Introduction to the paperback edition of “Overdrive,” Buckley answered those who had criticized the book. Excerpts from “Overdrive” appeared in “The New Yorker” in January and February of 1983, and they caused something of a critical firestorm. Critics were harsh on what they perceived to be Buckley’s solipsistic attitude in penning such a book. Of course, a book written by anyone covering a week in one’s own life is by its very definition solipsistic, but there you go. When “Cruising Speed” was published in 1971, an interviewer asked “Don’t you think it a bit much to write an entire book devoted to the events of a single week?” Buckley’s tongue in cheek response was “I don’t know. John Keats devoted an entire ode to a single Grecian urn.” (p.154) Upon publication of “Overdrive” in August, 1983, the book encountered a frosty reception from many book reviewers. As Buckley himself writes, “These critics were uniformly…upset, might be the generic word to describe their emotions…They found the book variously boring, boorish, presumptuous, vain, arrogant, illiterate, solipsistic, and other things.” (Introductory epilogue, p. xviii-xix) Critics were also upset at what they perceived to be Buckley’s delight at his upper-class lifestyle. Nora Ephron, writing in “The New York Times,” said “He has written a book about money.” (p.xix) Ephron then goes on to criticize Buckley’s emphasis on his limousine, seeing it as emblematic of his lifestyle. But Ephron had missed the point. “Overdrive” is not a book about William Buckley’s money; it’s a book about William Buckley’s life. And yes, William Buckley’s life might look very different from yours and mine. But, if we’re reading a book written about a week in someone’s life, the type of people who would write such a book will probably lead a very different life than you and me. Yes, William F. Buckley had a customized limousine. William F. Buckley was also a very successful writer and speaker who made a lot of money during his life. Thus, his life will be quite different from most people’s lives. But that is exactly why Buckley’s life is interesting to read about.

........

1981 was a perfect time for Buckley to write “Overdrive,” as it was the first year of Ronald Reagan’s Presidential administration, and Buckley was one of the people in the conservative movement most responsible for Reagan’s ultimate rise to power. Reagan and Buckley were quite close, and that makes “Overdrive” a little more interesting. Throughout “Overdrive” Buckley shifts between the past and present, as something in the present invariably brings back a memory. And while this style is very true to life, as many random memories come our way during the course of a day, it sometimes makes “Overdrive” a trifle challenging to read. More than a couple of times I had to go back and double check myself as I wasn’t sure if an event was actually happening in the present or if it was a past memory.

Buckley begins Monday, November 16th, 1981, at his desk in his office, which is a converted garage in his home in Stamford, Connecticut. The first few pages of the book bring about reminiscences about buying the house with his wife Pat, the pheasant he always sees on his lawn in the morning, and the desk he’s working at, which he bought in Mexico in 1951 when he was working for the CIA. (Buckley’s superior officer in the CIA was E. Howard Hunt, of Watergate infamy.) By the time the reader first encounters Buckley at mid-day on Monday, he has already written his newspaper column for the day. Buckley doesn’t go into much detail about his newspaper columns, as he doesn’t even tell us what his column that day was about. Buckley was able to write extremely quickly, and could polish off a column in half an hour! However, Buckley claimed to not enjoy writing. He compared himself to his fellow conservative columnist George F. Will, who said “I wake in the morning and I ask myself: ‘Is this one of the days I have to write a column?’ And if the answer is ‘Yes,’ I rise a happy man.” (p.76) In contrast, Buckley writes, “I, on the other hand, wake neither particularly happy nor unhappy, but to the extent that my mood is affected by the question whether I need to write a column that morning, the impact of Monday-Wednesday-Friday is definitely negative. Because I do not like to write, for the simple reason that writing is extremely hard work, and I do not ‘like’ extremely hard work.” (p.76-7) This coming from a man who often produced 350,000 words a year for publication, a man who wrote a newspaper column three times a week for 45 years, and who published 57 books during his lifetime! Methinks he doth protest too much.

What exactly did Buckley’s week chronicled in “Overdrive” look like? Here are thumbnail sketches of WFB’s activities for each of the days he covers:

Monday-Buckley writes his column at home in Stamford, then goes into New York City, in his limo. Goes to “National Review” offices, meets with editors. Hears classical pianist Rosalyn Tureck at Carnegie Hall.

Tuesday-up early to fly to St. Petersburg (Florida, NOT Russia) for a lunchtime lecture. Flies back to New York City for a benefit for the New York City Ballet. After the ballet, goes to the home of Ahmet Ertegun, the President of Atlantic Records.

Wednesday-Writes his column early. Lunch with his sister Priscilla, who works for “National Review.” Attends an 8-hour theater performance of Charles Dickens’ “Nicholas Nickleby,” with Ron Reagan, the President’s son. Buckley writes of the play, “Surely the most captivating theatrical experience I’ve ever had.” (p.98)

Thursday-Prepares remarks for a 20-minute speech at the Waldorf. Writes a letter to Ronald Reagan. Accepts offer to act as host of American showing of miniseries “Brideshead Revisited.” Gives speech at the Waldorf, and then flies to Toledo, Ohio to give another speech at a dinner for the Friends of the University of Toledo Libraries. Writes his Friday column late Thursday night before going to bed.

Friday-Flies to Louisville, Kentucky, to tape two episodes of “Firing Line.” Writes the introductions for his guests on “Firing Line,” which he finds to be the most difficult of the many things he does. The first episode to be taped deals with the issue of busing to effect school desegregation. Buckley admits that he doesn’t get the show off to a smooth start, as he botches the names of scholars who have written reports on busing. The rest of the show goes better. Between shows Buckley gets the message that President Reagan was calling for him. Buckley calls the White House, but the President is unavailable right now, but will be available in half an hour. Buckley knows that won’t work, as he has another hour-long “Firing Line” to tape, so he tells the White House he’ll call back in an hour. Such was the power of William F. Buckley in 1981! The second episode of “Firing Line” features John Y. Brown, then the Governor of Kentucky. The show goes well, although Buckley writes “The effort to get him to intellectualize his point is not working.” (p.149) After the show finishes taping, Buckley talks to President Reagan on the phone. Buckley has tickets to fly back to New York City, but the flight is canceled, so he must spend the night in Louisville.

Saturday-Flies back to New York City. WFB responds to more letters. One of the highlights of “Overdrive” is reading Buckley’s responses to the letters he receives. In letters to strangers, Buckley is usually very witty, and with his friends he is very kind and generous. I greatly admire what a nice person Buckley seemed to be; throughout “Overdrive” he exudes a kindness and graciousness to all of his friends. Buckley is always quick to praise his friends, which is an appealing trait. One thing that struck me as I revisited some passages from the book is that for an American male born in the year 1925, William F. Buckley was very much in touch with his emotions. Very early in the book Buckley reprints the moving eulogy he delivered at his friend Harry Elmlark’s funeral. Elmlark worked for Buckley’s newspaper syndicate, and Buckley had worked closely with Elmlark for many years. Most of their working relationship was over the telephone, and Buckley writes “When he called and you were occupied, he would not call again. ‘I always know you’ll call me back,’ he said to me once; and it is a sadness very nearly disabling to know that I cannot call him back again.” (p.25) That’s a lovely thing to say about a friend. Another great quote is from a letter that Buckley wrote to author Keith Mano, who had dedicated a book to Buckley. “There is no way to thank you for this, except to insist that you should know the measure of my gratitude, and to accomplish that will require a lifetime.” (p.192-3) Another good friend of Buckley’s, the British actor David Niven, is staying at their house for the weekend. The Nivens and the Buckleys wintered in the same resort town in Switzerland, which is how they became friends. Buckley writes of the problems that Niven has been having controlling his voice lately, which a doctor has told Niven is due to overwork. Sadly, the doctor was very wrong, and Niven’s trouble controlling his voice was the first sign that he had ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which would kill Niven in July, 1983, just before “Overdrive” was published.

Sunday-Buckley starts the day by saying, “I rose early because the day would be crowded.” (p.206) You know, as opposed to the other days of the week he’s just described. Buckley answers more letters before Mass. We learn that WFB didn’t care for the Vatican II reforms of the Catholic Church. WFB visits his friend Tom Hume in the hospital. David Niven is in rare form at lunch, doing many wonderful impersonations-no trouble with his voice today. After lunch WFB’s son Christopher makes a surprise visit. At this time Christopher was a speechwriter for Vice-President George H.W. Bush. WFB goads Christopher into taking the boat out for a quick sail.

Monday-Halfway into writing his column, Vice-President Bush calls WFB. Bush has to cancel his appearance at a fundraising lunch that day for “National Review.” Bush cannot leave Washington because of a federal government shutdown. WFB attends the “National Review” editorial conference. Goes back to his apartment for lunch, Jeane Kirkpatrick, then US Ambassador to the United Nations, is replacing Bush as the speaker. After the lunch, WFB writes his “Notes and Asides” column for “National Review.” Works on the book jacket cover for his forthcoming book about sailing, “Atlantic High.” Visits his mother at her apartment. Has dinner with his “National Review” editors. Goes to bed.

That’s quite a week. As I noted at the beginning of this review, I’m impressed with William F. Buckley as a person, even when I don’t agree with him. I’m impressed by Buckley’s obvious intelligence and his love for the arts. Some of the most fun passages of “Overdrive” are Buckley writing about the music of Bach. I’m also impressed by Buckley’s loyalty and devotion to his friends. He always makes a point of mentioning his friends’ good qualities, and he is generous in his praise of them without ever seeming sycophantic. “Overdrive” is also a testament to how much Buckley enjoyed his life. Throughout the week he doesn’t complain about being tired, or being frustrated that he has to spend the night in Louisville. He seems to enjoy all of his experiences, taking them as they come, and being happy that he is doing work he enjoys while surrounded by family and friends. Who could ask for anything more?

[Robert Mckay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read a bad book by William F. Buckley. Not all of them are great, but all of them attain at least to good. And even a merely good book by Buckley gives you the exquisite pleasure of his English, which may drive you to the dictionary, but will never be pedestrian.

Cruising Speed is what Buckley termed a documentary (he called its sequel, which he published a dozen years later, a personal documentary). In this book he recounts a week in his life.

If this were fiction, it would be the most boring thing possible - a book in which nothing happens. (I recently tried reading Gone With the Wind, and gave it up because in 100 pages about 15 minutes of time had passed, and I can't read a book which has less action than drying paint.) But Buckley just going through his regular life is anything but boring. In a sense it's true - nothing happens. There are no fistfights or gunfights, no natural disasters, no great upheavals, no conflict requiring a resolution. Yet Buckley does do things - he was a very busy man in 1971 - and though they seem like the least interesting things one could possibly read about (traveling from his house in Connecticut to his apartment in Manhattan, taping episodes of Firing Line, eating lunch with friends, writing his column), his style and dash turn them from mundane nothings into captivating incidents.

One might dismiss this book as the self-promotion of one of the idle rich. Yet Buckley is engaged in productive activity - not, granted, making tires or roofing houses or picking up garbage or driving a truck, but honest work nonetheless. Someone has to write newspaper columns, publish magazines, turn out books, and otherwise carry on the intellectual life of society, and why not William F. Buckley? Of course there are those - there were such people all his life - who would as soon burn him in person as in effigy because of his political views, but to condemn a book simply because its author has a different philosophy than you do is bigotry at its worst, and if you carry it to its logical conclusion, you might as well burn the Constitution and install a dictator and be done with it. The rest of us, whether we disagree with all, or some, or none of Buckley's ideas, can find his writing so interesting that when we take up Cruising Speed, we enjoy it immensely.

Besides, you can't entirely dislike a man who, at one point in the book, says "I wish the news was always over." And you can't entirely dislike the book, either, not if it can include such a cogent statement.

[Steve Peifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been on a Buckley kick lately, and I always enjoyed Overdrive, so I was excited to read this book that came out before Overdrive. He journaled a week in his life in both books, and it was an interesting experiment. So of it didn’t age well (Buckley was traumatized by hippies) but listening to him sort his initial thoughts on abortion was interesting.

It’s certainly a time capsule of a certain era and that made it worth the read.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like sailing and a conservative perspective on politics, you will enjoy this book. Take a trip with Buckley, et al. across the Atlantic.

[Andrew Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, first-hand account of one action packed week in the life of William F. Buckley.