Glimpse of a Fine Mind   

My first encounter with Mr. Buckley (I could never quite bring myself to call him "Bill" despite his polite suggestions; kind of like calling God, as some people do, "The Big Guy"), was on 24 June 1986 at the celebration of the publication of Christopher's first book "The White House Mess". I was 3 years out of St. John's Law School and an anomaly of different sorts. Indeed, my avid conservatism was frequently at odds with every attorney with whom I merely discussed current events to the point where it was actually imperiling my employment. If I recall correctly, the soiree was organized by the N.Y. Conservative Party of which I was a gleeful new member. Mr. Buckley arrived at the hotel dining room with his ubiquitous clipboard sans implement. I timely offered him mine as I was in close proximity, having inched closer and closer to be in his aura and perhaps hear what he was saying privately to the partisans. He noticeably balked when he noticed that it was a Cross pen and started to refuse it on the ground that it was much too valuable a risk. I was saddened knowing that I would have given it to him for posterity without him even having to ask. But upon my rejoinder he used it for the evening at the end of which he placed it inside his jacket or the top of the clipboard, I forget which. There was absolutely no way that I was going to ask for the return of the pen even though it was always dear to me and now was destined to be a keepsake. Christopher actually reminded him to return it which permitted me an opportunity to engage Mr. Buckley one on one in some routine conversational pleasantries about pens, lawyers, French wines, and the Metro-North schedule (I was living on East 50 Street about 5 doors west of Lutece and hadn't the foggiest idea of the latter).

About three years later I finally got to the head of a long line at a book signing at a Lower Broadway bookstore for "On the Firing Line". I handed Mr. Buckley my Cross pen to use to sign the inside of the front cover. He looked at it, then at me, and with a knowing smile, said "So, I see you're still carrying this valuable pen!" I was speechless, having resolved earlier in the afternoon not to even attempt the foolhardy notion of reminding him of our first encounter. It was then that I discovered a little something of the foundation of the magnificent mind with which God had blessed him.
Charles J. Jannace III, Salisbury, MD

03/02 09:55 PM