http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1359022071

Living on fire : the life of L. Brent Bozell Jr

& ldquo;A triumph ... A moving, beautifully written biography. & rdquo; & mdash; 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 & rsquo;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 & rsquo;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 & rsquo;s first 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 & ldquo;manacled to a roller coaster. & rdquo; Biographer Daniel Kelly tells Bozell & rsquo;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 & rsquo;s private correspondence. The result is a richly textured portrait of a gifted, complex man & mdash;his triumphs as well as his struggles. & ldquo;A delightfully readable and analytically acute biography of a figure central to the founding of the conservative movement. & rdquo; & mdash;Rich Lowry, editor of National Review & ldquo;In the latest of ISI & rsquo;s rightly praised series of conservative biographies, Kelly offers a beautifully written and moving portrait of L. Brent Bozell Jr. ... A must and inspiring read. & rdquo; & mdash;Lee Edwards, author of Goldwater: The Man Who Made a Revolution & ldquo;Kelly tells the remarkable story of L. Brent Bozell & rsquo;s turbulent, crusading career inside and outside the American conservative movement, of the private demons that nearly destroyed him, and of the spiritual tranquility he achieved in the end. & rdquo; & mdash;George H. Nash, author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945 & ldquo;A wonderful book about an extraordinary person who was essential to the founding of the modern conservative movement. Readers will find it impossible to put down. & rdquo; & mdash;Donald J. Devine, the Fund for American Studies & ldquo;This book should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the place of traditionalist thought in late-twentieth-century America. & rdquo; & mdash;Christopher Shannon, Christendom College & ldquo;A good biography of L. Brent Bozell Jr. has been long needed, and our patience has been rewarded with Kelly & rsquo;s heart-wrenching and inspiring book. & rdquo; & mdash;Donald T. Critchlow, author of The Conservative Ascendancy Daniel Kelly (1938 & ndash;2012) was the author of James Burnham and the Struggle for the World, a life of L. Brent Bozell & rsquo;s National Review colleague. He taught history at New York University & rsquo;s Washington Square College and the City University of New York & rsquo;s York College.

Open All Close All