William F. Buckley Jr.’s dedicated effort to mentor the next generation was critical to sustaining the modern American conservative movement.
O ne of the most important means by which William F. Buckley Jr. helped to create, manage, and sustain the modern American conservative movement was through his sincere and dedicated effort to mentor the next generation. He did this in three primary ways: through National Review, through new conservative institutions he helped to found, and through his 60–70 per annum visits to college campuses for decades starting in the 1950s.
At the magazine, Buckley invested much in the lives and talents of young writers, including John Leonard, whom Bill understood to not be dispositionally conservative. He was aided in this mission by his older sister, Priscilla, the magazine’s managing editor for decades, who ran, in the words of George Will, “the Priscilla Buckley School of Journalistic Craftsmanship.” Bill was among the founders of several key organizations in the burgeoning conservative movement, including the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (originally the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists), where he was the first president in 1953, the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) which was founded at the Buckley estate of Great Elm in 1960, and the Philadelphia Society, which Buckley provided the first investment of $100 for in December 1964.
Buckley’s decades of constant travel on the college lecture circuit also gave him ample opportunity to meet and educate young Americans on the central principles of conservatism, even hostile audiences of which Bill was happy to engage and try and persuade on the righteousness of his ideas.