Buckley Won't Paint Parents as Saints

Christopher Buckley is spilling the beans about his late parents in a frank memoir due in May, he tells Vanity Fair. “This book is going to land hard in some quarters,” he says. “They were not your typical mom and dad. This is not Ozzie and Harriet. They were William F. and Pat Buckley. The phrase ‘larger than life’ doesn’t twice cover it.”

The influential William F., who founded the conservative National Review, hosted PBS’ Firing Line for 30 years. His wife hailed from high society. Christopher promises to dish some family dirt in Losing Mom and Pop. “When the universe hands you material like this,” he says, “it would seem an act of conscious omission not to do something about it.” (More William F. Buckley Jr. stories.)