Posted 11:24 AM by Gene

NR's Ms. Travers has just announced that "WFB" has died. He was a conservative stalwart, that is true; there was also something opportunistic about him, something weaselly, that we can't quite pin down; that we will forever associate him with Bach's B-Minor Mass and "Roll Over, Beethoven" may have something to do with it. Perhaps it was that odd, patrician way of speaking of his, with his six-syllable words and his nose always turned upward, and the voice the stuff of David Frye's dreams. (Who was David Frye?) On the other hand he leaves behind a monument, an imperfect monument, a magazine that at its best has taken courageous stands against Communism and our moral rot, and that at its worst (and that more recently, and through its Web site) stands for Gekko Kudlowism and stupid pop-culture obsessions. Certainly the modern conservative movement would not quite have been the same without him. Well, we'll judge him by the best of what he left behind, which is an achievement worthy enough.

(Revised at 11:40 a.m.)