In The Reagan I Knew, the late William F. Buckley Jr. offers a reminiscence of thirty years of friendship with the man who brought the American conservative movement out of the political wilderness and into the White House. Ronald and Buckley were political allies and close friends throughout Reagan’s political career. They went on vacations together and shared inside jokes.

Yet for all the words that have been written about him, Ronald Reagan remains an enigma. His former speechwriter Peggy Noonan called him “paradox all the way down,” and even his son Ron Reagan despaired of ever truly knowing him. But Reagan was not an enigma to William F. Buckley Jr. They understood and taught each other for decades, and together they changed history.

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR. (1925-2008) was the author and editor of over fifty works of fiction and nonfiction. The founder and former editor-in-chief of National Review and former host of “Firing Line,” he was one of the intellectual leaders of the right from the 1950s until his death. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush in 1991. His most recent work of nonfiction, Flying High, an appreciation of Barry Goldwater, was published by Basic Books in 2007.