WindFall: The End of the Affair

by William F. Buckley Jr.

1990 was a significant year for Buckley. He not only embarked on a sailing trip that forms the main subject of this book, but on several other major the 40th anniversary of his marriage and his graduation from Yale, and the 35th anniversary of the founding of the National Review. 111 photographs, 27 in color. Line drawings.

Genres: Travel, Biography, Nautical, Biography Memoir, Nonfiction

Hardcover

Published September 24, 1994

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

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last of Buckley's sailing books and takes place in the mid-nineties. Buckley had turned 65 and had retired as the head of National Review. He and his son Christopher, along with a few friends, chartered a boat to recreate Columbus's voyage across the Atlantic. As in his previous sailing books, this is full of humor, absurdity, spirituality and politics. Regardless of your political point of view, all of Buckley's sailing books are thoroughly entertaining reading...and of course, perfectly written with more than a few words one would need to look up in the dictionary.

[Edward Renehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, beautiful, elegiac. The end of the affair indeed.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up for $1 at a community book sale in Palm Springs. I thought the book was going to be totally about a Bill Buckley's transoceanic crossing from Lisbon to Madeira and back to San Salvadore Island. I did get that interspersed with Buckley personal, political, spiritual, and social life. Of course, I remember Buckley very much a political figure as well as the intellectual he was plus his spiritual zeal. I may not have picked up the book had I known what it really was, but I must say I did enjoy it - the whole thing!

[Dan Kok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some people seem to get every ounce out of every minute. Buckley is one of those people.

[Jack Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book several years ago and pulled it out for a second read - it's still an interesting read despite Buckley's penchant for convoluted sentences including words requiring a scramble for the dictionary. He was one of a kind.

[Conrad Heibel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most people know Buckley for his political books and spy novels, but most don't know how wonderful his sailing books are. Windfall is the last in his series of sailing books -- they're not really about sailing, but reflections on the journey (and The Journey). Witty, wry and very personal. What a great writer.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me understand my inexplicably Republican relatives as they are aging and becoming different from the way I remember them as a child. It will be OK. We're all going to sail into the sunset someday. As long as we've taken our time to get close to others, or to contribute, we're going to be fine.

[Missy]

Per Gail, debates Catholicism

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book ...pure poetry