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Living on Fire: The Life of L. Brent Bozell Jr.
“A triumph . . . A moving, beautifully written biography”
― National Review From the beginning, L. Brent Bozell seemed destined for great things. An extraordinary orator, the young man with fiery red hair won a national debate competition in high school and later was elected president of Yale’s storied Political Union, where his debating partner was his close friend William F. Buckley Jr. In less than a decade after graduating from Yale, Bozell helped Buckley launch National Review , became a popular columnist and speaker, and, most famously, wrote Barry Goldwater’s landmark book The Conscience of a Conservative . But after setting his sights on high political office, Bozell took a different route in the 1960s. He abruptly moved his family to Spain; he founded a traditional Catholic magazine, Triumph , that quickly turned radical; he repudiated on religious grounds the U.S. Constitution; he made it his mission to transform America into a Catholic nation; he led the nation’s major antiabortion protest (featuring a militant group known as the Sons of Thunder); he severed ties with his erstwhile friends from the conservative movement, including Buckley (who was also his brother-in-law). By the mid-1970s, Bozell had fallen prey to bipolar disorder and alcoholism, leading life as if “manacled to a roller coaster,” as a friend put it. Biographer Daniel Kelly tells Bozell’s remarkable story vividly and with sensitivity in Living on Fire . To write this book, Kelly interviewed dozens of friends and family members and gained unprecedented access to Bozell’s private correspondence. The result is a richly textured portrait of a gifted, complex man―his triumphs as well as his struggles. Once destined for Capitol Hill, L. Brent Bozell wound up working in Washington soup kitchens just blocks away. Bringing mercy to the poor became his vocation―and, as Living on Fire shows, he succeeded admirably by the standards he came to embrace.
― National Review From the beginning, L. Brent Bozell seemed destined for great things. An extraordinary orator, the young man with fiery red hair won a national debate competition in high school and later was elected president of Yale’s storied Political Union, where his debating partner was his close friend William F. Buckley Jr. In less than a decade after graduating from Yale, Bozell helped Buckley launch National Review , became a popular columnist and speaker, and, most famously, wrote Barry Goldwater’s landmark book The Conscience of a Conservative . But after setting his sights on high political office, Bozell took a different route in the 1960s. He abruptly moved his family to Spain; he founded a traditional Catholic magazine, Triumph , that quickly turned radical; he repudiated on religious grounds the U.S. Constitution; he made it his mission to transform America into a Catholic nation; he led the nation’s major antiabortion protest (featuring a militant group known as the Sons of Thunder); he severed ties with his erstwhile friends from the conservative movement, including Buckley (who was also his brother-in-law). By the mid-1970s, Bozell had fallen prey to bipolar disorder and alcoholism, leading life as if “manacled to a roller coaster,” as a friend put it. Biographer Daniel Kelly tells Bozell’s remarkable story vividly and with sensitivity in Living on Fire . To write this book, Kelly interviewed dozens of friends and family members and gained unprecedented access to Bozell’s private correspondence. The result is a richly textured portrait of a gifted, complex man―his triumphs as well as his struggles. Once destined for Capitol Hill, L. Brent Bozell wound up working in Washington soup kitchens just blocks away. Bringing mercy to the poor became his vocation―and, as Living on Fire shows, he succeeded admirably by the standards he came to embrace.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 31, 2014
6 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Kelly
43 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 28, 2020
Back in the '90s, when everyone had zines, a friend wrote in their zine, "An angel is like an earthquake." Angels always have to tell people, "Be not afraid," because they're always terrifying. They crash into people's lives like a cataclysm. My friend was writing about a mugging which left them hospitalized. I don't remember if my friend said explicitly that disasters can reveal something to us that we needed to see; I don't want to put words in their mouth. But I do remember the parallel between the disaster (that mugging had consequences that were still shaping my friend's life a decade later) and the messenger.
Brent Bozell was one of the conservative movement's biggest "insiders": a defender of Joe McCarthy, an early contributor to the National Review. He was an extremist and a nonconformist by character; these traits allowed him to break with NR to oppose suppression of the black vote--and also led him to call for a nuclear first strike against the USSR. Daniel Kelly's biography is very good on Bozell's early conservatism and its contradictions, but it really rises to the occasion once Bozell gets weirder.
Bozell generally represented a conservatism which was not at home in the world, unlike the patrician Buckley style. He got more romantic, more grounded in Catholic faith and its focus on poverty and injustice. He never identified the central challenge of the Catholic political imagination--how to live in humility toward those who do not share our Faith, seeking some degree of harmony with them, rather than assuming their disappearance or subordination. (In this he shares the huge obvious sorta terrifying flaw of those who call themselves "integralists" today, just (((by the way))).)
Bozell's personal life became increasingly chaotic, eventually prompting a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. And here Kelly's biography rises to sublimity. He doesn't romanticize Bozell's illness, or its effects on his family. But he does show how this shattering experience, this "long nightmare," brought Bozell at last to extraordinary personal humility, service, and peace.
The earlier parts of this book are competent and interesting. The final section is transcendent.
Brent Bozell was one of the conservative movement's biggest "insiders": a defender of Joe McCarthy, an early contributor to the National Review. He was an extremist and a nonconformist by character; these traits allowed him to break with NR to oppose suppression of the black vote--and also led him to call for a nuclear first strike against the USSR. Daniel Kelly's biography is very good on Bozell's early conservatism and its contradictions, but it really rises to the occasion once Bozell gets weirder.
Bozell generally represented a conservatism which was not at home in the world, unlike the patrician Buckley style. He got more romantic, more grounded in Catholic faith and its focus on poverty and injustice. He never identified the central challenge of the Catholic political imagination--how to live in humility toward those who do not share our Faith, seeking some degree of harmony with them, rather than assuming their disappearance or subordination. (In this he shares the huge obvious sorta terrifying flaw of those who call themselves "integralists" today, just (((by the way))).)
Bozell's personal life became increasingly chaotic, eventually prompting a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. And here Kelly's biography rises to sublimity. He doesn't romanticize Bozell's illness, or its effects on his family. But he does show how this shattering experience, this "long nightmare," brought Bozell at last to extraordinary personal humility, service, and peace.
The earlier parts of this book are competent and interesting. The final section is transcendent.
July 19, 2018
got a little emotional at the end there
man oh man Bozell was a real human being and a real hero
4 years ago I'd never have guessed I'd appreciate so strongly a young conservative who became an anti-American radical Catholic
man oh man Bozell was a real human being and a real hero
4 years ago I'd never have guessed I'd appreciate so strongly a young conservative who became an anti-American radical Catholic
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July 11, 2014"Kelly, who died in 2012 just after completing the manuscript, has done a remarkable job, not just in writing poignantly of Bozell’s life but in adroitly weaving together archival material and interviews with friends and members of the family. Kelly’s writing is clear and wonderfully fluid, and the book moves briskly.
Nevertheless, one wishes it were longer and had included material such as the powerful tribute to Bozell written by Warren H. Carroll, founding president of Christendom College, published in the 1997 edition of the Catholic Social Science Review: 'Never in my 65 years have I known a man who suffered so much. He never complained; he offered it all to Christ. His son, speaking at his funeral, could not hold back his tears when he reviewed Brent’s afflictions; and neither can I writing of them.' ... In the meantime, we are grateful that Kelly has written this outstanding biography. Bozell is one of the great, unsung figures of 20th-century American history, and his passionate, merciful life is one worth knowing."
Read the full review here: http://www.theamericanconservative.co...
Nevertheless, one wishes it were longer and had included material such as the powerful tribute to Bozell written by Warren H. Carroll, founding president of Christendom College, published in the 1997 edition of the Catholic Social Science Review: 'Never in my 65 years have I known a man who suffered so much. He never complained; he offered it all to Christ. His son, speaking at his funeral, could not hold back his tears when he reviewed Brent’s afflictions; and neither can I writing of them.' ... In the meantime, we are grateful that Kelly has written this outstanding biography. Bozell is one of the great, unsung figures of 20th-century American history, and his passionate, merciful life is one worth knowing."
Read the full review here: http://www.theamericanconservative.co...
October 7, 2015
Wow, I never thought Bozell was this crazy and cool. Great read.
September 22, 2020
This book is a very powerful one, being a biography of someone I had heard about because of my general reading interests, but someone whose life story had been largely unknown to me. This story ended up being inspirational, on the one hand, but also a deeply sad and poignant story of how it was that a life that had been so productive in terms of writing and political activism was largely derailed for a long period of time by the scourge of mental illness, and how it was that what was known about this person had drastically changed until the end of life proved to be a glorious achievement of grace in immense difficulty. It was at times painful to read this biography, not because it was written poorly or even unsympathetically, but because it conveyed a life that had a lot of trials in it, and that featured above all the struggle for dignity and respect and well-being in the face of mental health struggles that jeopardized all of these. Dignity matters a great deal in our lives, and that which threatens to rob us of it is all the more fearsome and worrisome in our minds.
This book is a bit more than 200 pages and it is divided into fifteen chapters. After a foreword, the book begins with a discussion of Bozell's family background (1), as well as his reputation as being a bulldog when it came to ferocious debate (2). This led to his early writings generally in favor of McCarthy (3) and his efforts to counteract the supposed trend of history (4). This led him to be a ghostwriter (5) and then to live for a time in Spain (6), a nation he came to deeply love, despite its alien nature to where he had come from. A discussion of his pulling up of stakes (7), and then his devotion to the defense of the Constitution (8) as well as of his Catholic faith (9) then follow. After that comes a discussion of his role on the cutting edge of conservative Catholic activism (10) as well as his pessimistic thoughts about the state of America at the time (11). The rest of the book is far more grim, with a look at Bozell's descent into madness with a look at his delusions about the empire he was forming (12), a period of deep depression that followed his failures as an editor (13), his long years of struggle with manic depression (14), and his merciful and gracious passing (15), after which the book ends with an epilogue, notes, acknowledgements, and an index.
If there is one thing in particular that the author nails as far as this biography is concerned, it is that Brent Bozell, Jr. lived his life on fire. Whether it meant his fire and unwillingness to compromise when it came to conservative politics in the early part of his career, or whether it was fire for the Catholic church to which he converted as a young adult and whose interests he increasingly supported, even if he was not deeply and closely connected personally to the Catholic culture, such as it is, within the United States, it was on fire. And it is clear that the fiery passion that he held matters of faith and politics was also a fire that sometimes burned him, especially because his fire for these matters also involved him in a couple of unsuccessful runs for state political office in Maryland and involved him in disagreements and rows with others and in his struggles to be respected and honored even when he was struggling with poverty and making terrible decisions in states of mania or dealing with lengthy depressive spells. If this book is the tale of a triumph, it is not the triumph that the subject or his friends and family expected or wanted, but it is the sort of triumph in the face of adversity that is accessible to a great many people.
This book is a bit more than 200 pages and it is divided into fifteen chapters. After a foreword, the book begins with a discussion of Bozell's family background (1), as well as his reputation as being a bulldog when it came to ferocious debate (2). This led to his early writings generally in favor of McCarthy (3) and his efforts to counteract the supposed trend of history (4). This led him to be a ghostwriter (5) and then to live for a time in Spain (6), a nation he came to deeply love, despite its alien nature to where he had come from. A discussion of his pulling up of stakes (7), and then his devotion to the defense of the Constitution (8) as well as of his Catholic faith (9) then follow. After that comes a discussion of his role on the cutting edge of conservative Catholic activism (10) as well as his pessimistic thoughts about the state of America at the time (11). The rest of the book is far more grim, with a look at Bozell's descent into madness with a look at his delusions about the empire he was forming (12), a period of deep depression that followed his failures as an editor (13), his long years of struggle with manic depression (14), and his merciful and gracious passing (15), after which the book ends with an epilogue, notes, acknowledgements, and an index.
If there is one thing in particular that the author nails as far as this biography is concerned, it is that Brent Bozell, Jr. lived his life on fire. Whether it meant his fire and unwillingness to compromise when it came to conservative politics in the early part of his career, or whether it was fire for the Catholic church to which he converted as a young adult and whose interests he increasingly supported, even if he was not deeply and closely connected personally to the Catholic culture, such as it is, within the United States, it was on fire. And it is clear that the fiery passion that he held matters of faith and politics was also a fire that sometimes burned him, especially because his fire for these matters also involved him in a couple of unsuccessful runs for state political office in Maryland and involved him in disagreements and rows with others and in his struggles to be respected and honored even when he was struggling with poverty and making terrible decisions in states of mania or dealing with lengthy depressive spells. If this book is the tale of a triumph, it is not the triumph that the subject or his friends and family expected or wanted, but it is the sort of triumph in the face of adversity that is accessible to a great many people.
April 23, 2014
Brent Bozell was a radical. He took no half-measures in all that he did and believed - as a husband, father, conservative, and Catholic. He began his public life as a conservative debater while at Yale; he was the bane of Communist sympathizers everywhere. He was a backer of Joseph McCarthy and Barry Goldwater, even ghostwriting Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. He was close friends with William Buckley, wrote frequently for National Review, and even tried his hand at politics.
Yet above all, he was Catholic, so much so that his Catholicism eventually consumed his conservatism. He founded the journal Triumph and became something of a theocrat. His anti-Americanism was particularly pronounced: America was "a vast moral and spiritual wasteland… [the American credo held that] salvation comes from democracy, education, a nifty standard of living, and a stockpile of nuclear bombs… non-Catholic America is morally disgusting. It is a panorama of evils: gay liberation, women's liberation, pills, pornography, sterility and murdered babies." Such writing alienated Bozell from the conservative movement and eventually caused Triumph's demise.
I had a hard time sympathizing with Bozell. While I agree with many of his ideas, his tone tended to be condescending and pugnacious. Moreover, his ideal of Catholic sovereignty in America was patently unrealistic. Yet as he grew older he also became more human. He struggled mightily with manic depression. And he emerged from this depression as a man of mercy, ardent to carry out Christ's corporal works of mercy to those in need. Not the most cheerful read, but a fascinating study all the same.
Yet above all, he was Catholic, so much so that his Catholicism eventually consumed his conservatism. He founded the journal Triumph and became something of a theocrat. His anti-Americanism was particularly pronounced: America was "a vast moral and spiritual wasteland… [the American credo held that] salvation comes from democracy, education, a nifty standard of living, and a stockpile of nuclear bombs… non-Catholic America is morally disgusting. It is a panorama of evils: gay liberation, women's liberation, pills, pornography, sterility and murdered babies." Such writing alienated Bozell from the conservative movement and eventually caused Triumph's demise.
I had a hard time sympathizing with Bozell. While I agree with many of his ideas, his tone tended to be condescending and pugnacious. Moreover, his ideal of Catholic sovereignty in America was patently unrealistic. Yet as he grew older he also became more human. He struggled mightily with manic depression. And he emerged from this depression as a man of mercy, ardent to carry out Christ's corporal works of mercy to those in need. Not the most cheerful read, but a fascinating study all the same.
January 10, 2015
How profoundly grateful I am for this inspired biography of this beautiful and holy man …
Brent Bozell is fast becoming one of my greatest inspirations and in time I hope to properly review this biography at my own website, which, in its own humble fashion, tries to carry the torch of what Bozell and the Triumph people were doing. If you care about Bozell and Triumph, as I do, it is just possible you may be interested in this site. And so I leave you a link …
http://corjesusacratissimum.org
Brent Bozell is fast becoming one of my greatest inspirations and in time I hope to properly review this biography at my own website, which, in its own humble fashion, tries to carry the torch of what Bozell and the Triumph people were doing. If you care about Bozell and Triumph, as I do, it is just possible you may be interested in this site. And so I leave you a link …
http://corjesusacratissimum.org
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews