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Summary
Summary
William F. Buckley, Jr., and Norman Mailer were the two towering intellectual figures of the 1960s, and they lived remarkably parallel lives. Both became best-selling authors in their twenties (with God and Man at Yale and The Naked and the Dead); both started hugely influential papers (National Review and the Village Voice); both ran for mayor of New York City; both were noted for their exceptional wit and venom; and both became the figurehead of their respective social movements (Buckley on the right, Mailer on the left). Indeed, Buckley and Mailer argued vociferously and publicly about every major issue of their time: civil rights, feminism, the counterculture, Vietnam, the Cold War. But behind the scenes, the two were close friends and trusted confidantes. In Buckley and Mailer, historian Kevin M. Schultz delves into their personal archives to tell the rich story of their friendship, their arguments, and the tumultuous decade they did so much to shape.
Here is the entertaining and deeply American story of what Mailer himself called a "difficult friendship": from their debate before the Floyd Patterson-Sonny Liston heavyweight fight in 1962 to their failed mayoral campaigns, to their confrontation at Truman Capote's Black-and-White Ball, to their starring roles in the central events of the '60s, including the giant antiwar rally in Berkeley, the March on the Pentagon, and the national political conventions in Miami and Chicago. Through it all, Schultz charts their friendship, whether sailing together off the coast of Connecticut, celebrating rave reviews and grousing about lousy ones, and defending each other's decisions privately even as they attack each other's positions publicly.
Brimming with Buckley and Mailer's own thoughts from their personal diaries and letters, Buckley and Mailer also features cameos by other leading figures of the time, including James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Barry Goldwater, Robert F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gloria Steinem, and Gore Vidal. Schultz delivers a fresh chronicle of the '60s and its long aftermath as well as an enormously engaging work of narrative history that explores these extraordinary figures' contrasting visions of what America was and what it could be.
Author Notes
Kevin M. Schultz holds a PhD in history from Berkeley and teaches twentieth-century American history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He lives in Chicago.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
University of Illinois historian Schultz's social history unfolds as Norman Mailer and William F. Buckley-heroes of the left and right, respectively-get to know one another in 1962 and become "near-allies in the battle to overturn the Liberal Establishment." The book is not a dual biography, nor does it span entire careers: it ends in 1969, with Mailer's entry into the New York City mayoral race when he was 46 and Buckley was 41. Mailer emerges as the adored protagonist, an all-around mensch, and the political prophet of the radical left. Buckley is treated more formally and critically. The book's central premise-that Mailer and Buckley were trusted confidants-is a stretch. Schultz also dwells fondly on cafe intellectuals and glamorous literary celebrities-such as Truman Capote, whose exploits are amply covered elsewhere-at some expense to the book's seriousness. Nevertheless, this "difficult friendship," as Mailer called it, illuminates the decade's larger cultural context. Mailer and Buckley were bright, magnetic intellectual leaders and publicity hounds with superhuman energy; both loved America but in different ways. Schultz navigates the 1960s through these two larger-than-life men, offering plentiful anecdotes in an informed, entertaining style. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* The prototypical left- and right-wing adversaries of the 1960s, battling it out on TV and in public forums, were novelist and New Journalist Norman Mailer (The Armies of the Night) and founder of the conservative National Review, William F. Buckley. The famously truculent Mailer and legendarily prolix Buckley also, four years apart, ran quixotic campaigns for mayor of New York City. That Mailer and Buckley were good friends is a lesser-known component of their relationship. Schultz attributes their kinship to a joint disgust at the central assumptions that dominated postwar America. Though both opposed the liberal establishment, Schultz explains, Mailer and Buckley epitomized the polarized and turbulent sixties, although Buckley more than Mailer shaped his constituency and did so consciously and zealously. By the time of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, Mailer's leadership, if it ever existed, was gone. Schultz deserves considerable praise for sticking to the intellectual content of their dispute, which, despite the frenzied atmosphere of the times, was intrinsic to the clash. By contextualizing the friendship, this volume, in addition to its considerable virtues as quasi-biography, is also a provocative and thorough, if not quite comprehensive (it's pretty much all East Coast, and there's no music), social and political history of the sixties, among the very best we have had.--Levine, Mark Copyright 2015 Booklist
Kirkus Review
A perceptive analysis of the evolution of political cultures that infuses a dissection of the contradictions within liberal and conservative thought with revealing character studies. At the core of this account of rivalry and friendship between William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008) and Norman Mailer (1923-2007) is the political excitement of an era gone by, when the radical Mailer and conservative Buckley could spar without allowing substance to be overwhelmed by theater. Schultz (20th Century American History/Univ. of Illinois at Chicago; Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise, 2011) demonstrates how the two men lived remarkably parallel lives as writers and public intellectuals of the 1960s, a confluence begun in 1955, with the birth of Buckley's National Review and Mailer's Village Voice. What they shared above all was an abiding love of America and a nagging fear of its imminent decay. Both abhorred the hollowness of postwar America, with its devotion to consumerism, corporate capitalism, and stultifying rules of social behavior, though they addressed this malaise quite differently. Schultz exhibits a sense of irony and a knack for telling details. He neither glamorizes nor excuses, exposing the best and worst traits of his subjects, their brilliance and their limitations. As political theorists and activists, they could be vague and they were trenchant. Both feared a totalitarianism of the mind, though Buckley (the salesman), unlike Mailer (the philosopher), had no willingness to shift views if he could be convinced that "his understanding of human nature was wrong." Where Mailer sought authenticity, Buckley required fealty to the virtues of tradition. From their first public debate in 1962, the loquacious darling of the right and the pugnacious bulldog of the left found they delighted in challenging each other. From that grew a regard that, despite their differences, endured for decades. In a book rich in anecdote and insight, Schultz assays their relationship splendidly. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Even those who know a little about these two gentlemen from their books and magazines and from the headlines of the day may have no idea of the extent or depth of their relationship. Listeners may be pleasantly surprised to learn about them and how intertwined they were with the main historical figures of the Sixties and Seventies. The author quotes extensively from the writings of the two, especially their considerable collection of correspondence. What wonderful wordsmiths these two men were; their eloquence helps to create an immensely enjoyable audiobook. In addition to Buckley and Mailer, the work brings to life the world of the 1950s, when the political realm was concerned about the so-called "Liberal Establishment." Verdict Recommended for medium and larger public libraries that collect in politics or this time period. ["Recommended, with misgivings, for scholars and students of modern American history": LJ 4/15/15 review of the Norton hc.]-Gretchen Pruett, New Braunfels P.L., TX © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Introduction | p. 1 |
Part I Debating the Future (1962-63) | |
1 The Nature of Man | p. 11 |
2 Placid Seas | p. 33 |
3 American Golem | p. 56 |
Part II Impregnating the Host [1964-65] | |
4 The Fires | p. 75 |
5 American Dreams | p. 99 |
6 The Most Hated Man in America | p. 116 |
7 Catching All the Falling Bodies | p. 138 |
Part III Birthing Pangs (1966-68) | |
8 Fly in the Ointment | p. 159 |
9 A Searing Love of Country | p. 187 |
10 The Assassination of Politics | p. 211 |
11 Halfway to Burke | p. 225 |
Part IV The New Order [1969-76] | |
12 One Last Try | p. 255 |
13 Jokers | p. 286 |
14 Moving On | p. 307 |
Epilogue | p. 320 |
Acknowledgments | p. 333 |
Notes | p. 335 |
Credits | p. 363 |
Index | p. 367 |