Priscilla Buckley

Priscilla Langford Buckley (October 17, 1921 – March 25, 2012) was an American author who was the managing editor of National Review magazine and a sister of its founder William F. Buckley, Jr.. Another brother was retired federal judge and former United States Senator James L. Buckley who named his daughter after her and dedicated his 2010 book Freedom at Risk: Reflections on Politics, Liberty, and the State to his sister.

Buckley was born in New York City to William Frank Buckley, Sr., and Aloise Josephine Antonia Steiner. She graduated with a degree in history in 1943 from Smith College where one of her best friends was feminist Betty Friedan. She worked for the CIA in the 1950s and for United Press in New York and Paris from 1953 to 1956. Whittaker Chambers was the one who suggested to William F. Buckley that he make his sister the managing editor of National Review, a position she acquired in 1959 when the original managing editor Suzanne La Follette retired. She worked as an editor of National Review for forty-three years. Some of the writers whom she helped to train include Paul Gigot, Bill McGurn, Mona Charen, and Anthony R. Dolan. Her 2001 memoir about international journalism was entitled String of Pearls while her 2005 memoir Living It Up with National Review: A Memoir is about her time at National Review magazine as well as stories about her travels and personal life.

Buckley died on March 25, 2012, at the age of 90, at Great Elm, the house in Sharon, Connecticut, where she and her nine siblings grew up.