Bill Buckley had the ability to write about someone — eulogize someone — immediately after he had died. He could do this even with close friends. He could do it even with his mother and his wife, which he did.
But he could not begin writing a eulogy or an obit before the person had died — even one second before. Even if the person had been lingering for years, à la Franco and Tito. (I can’t remember how long those two dictators lingered, but you get my drift.)
I can sometimes do the immediate obit, sometimes not. I don’t feel like writing about Bob Conquest, frankly. I may later. Today, however, NR is republishing a 2002 piece I did on him, “Conquest’s Conquest.” It was this piece that started the friendship between us, really.
I knew him for merely the last 13 years of his life, but, oh, I’m so glad I did. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. What a lucky, gratifying thing. God bless Bob Conquest, and his wife Liddie (a snappy Texas intellectual).