The Eric Metaxas Show - Lawrence Perelman (Encore)

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Author Lawrence Perelman shares his book "American Impresario William F. Buckley, Jr., and the Elements of American Character".

Welcome to the Eric Metaxis show. Did you ever see the movie The Blobs starring Steve McQueen? The blood-curdling threat of The Blob. Well, way back when, Eric had a small part in that film, but they had to cut his scene because the blob was supposed to eat him. But he kept spitting him out. Oh, the whole thing was just a disaster. Anyway, here's the guy who's not always that easy to digest.

Eric the Texas! Folks, welcome back. You know, I'm not. I love having Victor Marks on the program for many reasons. Any excuse we can have to bring him on. He has just produced a new video series called The Unseen War, and I think he's going to talk to me about it right now. Victor, welcome. Good to be here.

I can ask you a couple of important questions before we start. Is your name pronounced Victor, or is it pronounced the way Frouker pronounces that word in young Frankenstein where she says, Weakder. Do you go by Weakder or Victor? It's been both and even more. Both and even more. Okay, I'll accept that. The judges will accept that. I want to talk to you about this.

It's a video series. It's like a course called The Unseen War. And I know that I'm in it because I remember that you interviewed me for it. But just explain what it is, please. Yeah, look, I'll say this. The first time we met at the NRB and you had me on your program impromptu, I remember after we were done, we were visiting, and I asked you this, I'm like, hey, I have one question for you. Do you really believe in spiritual warfare?

You know, I need to find out if our relationship, relationship was going to continue because of what I do. And you were like, yeah, absolutely. And I thought, all right, because not everyone does believe that there's a spiritual body raging. And I'm talking about people in ministry. Oh, no, no, listen, listen, there's no doubt that, I mean, that's why you interviewed me for this, for this course, but there's no doubt that this is absolute reality.

and everybody needs to know about it. So yes, it is absolutely real. But you know and I know that there are a lot of self-proclaimed Christians who do not get this, which is staggering. It's insane. You know, it's like saying, like, I believe in baseball, but I've never seen a bat before. Well, how are you going to play baseball if you don't know what a bat is?

Like, this is as basic as it gets. So you have a lot of Christians that they major in thinking theological. but they never live it out. And that's what we're talking about here. God wants to invite us into being spiritual warriors for his purposes. That's part of what we're meant to do and everybody does it differently. But you, my friend, really move in this stuff. And I find that amazing because a lot of people, they think of you just as somebody who rescues children from evil.

but you, while you're doing that, you understand that you're in a spiritual battle and you know how to bind demons and how to, you understand that stuff. And most people, they kind of, a lot of people just shy away from it. It makes them uncomfortable. So how did you get into it, I guess, is my question.

When did you first experience this? Well, you know, our mission statement is to set captives free physically, emotional and spiritually. Spiritually is the highest form of it. I got into it reluctantly because I was reaching kids, young people who were incarcerated. And then I started seeing them manifest evil.

I mean, bar none. Non-believers are like, there's something on that person, that kid that we can't explain. And that's when I had to choose. Am I going to enter into that next realm? I mean, I'm comfortable in fighting and shooting combatively, but that next realm, it scared me at first only because I didn't know my true identity

and the authority that I had. But I realized very quickly, I better get squared away in this. And that is the highest level of warfare. And Christianity, we're fighting so many battles and fronts, but oftentimes we just, leave out what drives people to do evil. And look, last week, we rescued five orphans, five orphans, all siblings out of Syria under an ISIS camp controlled. Two of them had been raised in it for years.

At one point in the operation, a team who had been in a month earlier to, I mean, to really plan, watch the terminal routes. got stuck at a border cross and getting out of the country. And it was all for one reason. The person who we agreed with to let us get through with undocumented kids wanted money, a lot of it. And they were trying to negotiate. But it became very evil quickly, so much so that our team league got a call. And I was asked, do we negotiate or do we just? shoot the guy and get through

because at that point the kids, their whole identities have been scrubbed out of the ISIS camp database. They have to cross over. If they're left in Syria at this moment, and believe me, there was fighting going on, weird stuff,

we would lose them. They would be separated forever and be sex slaves because of the girls. That's what we started playing. You know this. You know. that in that moment, if you do not get them across the border, they will become sex slaves.

Folks, do you understand how real this is, what we're talking about? This is a reality. I'm not talking about the spiritual reality. I'm talking about the reality of what you just said, the evil that's in the world. So keep going, Victor. Yeah, and I'll tell folks,

you know, a boy may solve the problem temporarily, but prayer is what's going to ultimately get us through. And that's what did. I thank God for our trained teams that we had to negotiate several countries, but we got them all out because of prayer. And I'll tell everyone listening, you don't have to go to Iraq, Syria, these countries to have victory right now in your own home, in your own mind. That's where the war is. The battlefield is your mind.

I tell ladies this, look, and it works for men too, but ladies, I say, when you get out of the shower and you're getting ready, and it's just you in that mirror, do you ever hear negative chatter? Negative thoughts that are like, you're ugly, you're fat, no one ever love you. He don't love you, just, and typically they'll say, yeah. And I go, is that a self-assessment? Like, I need to lose weight or, you know, is it you? Is it an accusatory, you're ugly, you're a strict. tramp, you're past, you never be, God, and they pause and they go, oh my gosh, it's, it's an accusatory voice.

I said, that's a sign of demonic activity. And it's through learning their authority, taking every thought captive, like Ephesians 6 says, he put on the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, shield of fate, to Quincil's fiery dart, sword of the spirit, mental truth. man, the boots for wherever you go, demons of fear and you preach the gospel, you still walk in an authority in a natural way,

not weird, you'll have victory. Well, I was going to say, first of all, folks, we want you to look into this. So what is the best website for people to see the unseen war, the video series that you have just put out? Yeah, all they have to do is Google,

Unseen War. Google Unseen War. Obviously, your name is Victor Marks, Marks, N-X. Yep. There's a film and a course, online course. So there's two ways. They can watch the film or go through the course.

Okay, but it's called The Unseen War. It is hosted by our friend Kevin Sorbo. Yes. I am in it. Many others, obviously, are in it. But this is real. And before we close, I just want to say to folks, this world is real, the spiritual world is real. God wants to equip you so that you know you're a thing.

authority in Jesus. And so the devils are afraid of you because you know your authority. Not you're afraid of them. People say, I don't want anything to do with trouble. No, no, no. You don't understand. If you know what your authority is in Jesus, it's a whole new world. And the enemy wants you to be ignorant of that. So you live in fear. So this is very, very important. So Victor Marx, congrats on this, folks. Please check it out. It's called the unseen war. The unseen war. Victor Marx, thank you so much. much. Please say, too well.

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4998 on the Giza Dream Sheets, any size, any color of the number. Again, 1-800-9783057, 1-800-9757. The promo code is Eric, or please go to MyPillow.com. MyPillow.com. Use the code, Eric. Hey, the folks. Welcome back. If you know me, you know that I'm a political conservative and you may have heard me tell the stories of having met William F. Buckley, a real, a great hero, which means that it's fun for me to talk about William F. Buckley because he's such an amazing character.

and I have the privilege today of having the author of a brand new book called American Impressario. It's a portrait of William F. Buckley, the book American Impressario was written by Lawrence Perlman, who is my guest right now. Lawrence Perlman, welcome to this program. Thanks, Alex. Thanks so much for having me. So what is the provenance of this book? What's the story behind you're writing a book about the great William F. Buckley? It's one of the great privileges of my life to be able to write a book about YMF Buckley Jr. He was one of my great friends. I was very, very fortunate to meet him.

I'm the son of Soviet Jewish immigrants who came over 50 years ago for the Soviet Union and escaped and were able to build an incredible life here. I was born not long after my parents came to America. And growing up studying to be a pianist, one of the lights in our house was William Fuliam. F. Buckley Jr. My parents really loved him very much, really considered him to be an influencing bachelor in their being able to make it in America. Everything that he stood for, the program Firing Line, National Review, all of his values. And another thing that really stuck out for us was his love of classical music. So as I was studying piano in Ronald Reagan's era of the 1980s, as a Cold Warrior, a kid growing up in Minnesota of all places, kind of like Mondale's

Minnesota, here was William F. Buckley, Jr. in the middle of all of it. So when I moved to New York City to study piano and Manhattan School of Music, I had very few friends in the city, and who else to write a letter to than William F. Buckley, Jr. I was reading one of his books and called Happy Days We're Here Again, and I thought, you know, here are these articles about classical music. And it reminded me he loves classical music, but not only that, he studied piano, he studied harpsichord, he played with orchestra. There were all these amazing tales that he was telling. And I realized he lives here in New York City. So why not write him a thank you letter for having emboldened Soviet Jews to come here to make it in America and offer him a piano

recital? And this was 30 years ago. I wrote this letter. I was a very ambitious 18-year-old in in 1994. I sent it off to National Review. I couldn't wait to get a reply from him. So I called his office very boldly, and I asked if he received my letter. And I got his assistant on the phone. And she said, how would we know if he received her letter? He receives hundreds of letters every week. And I said, but I'm the 18-year-old pianist. And she said, oh, we did receive your letter. And he'll reply in due course. And she put the phone down on me. And one week later, in my modest bedroom and a four-bedroom apartment, very modest on the Upper West side. I had this one room. I found a letter sitting in the corner of my door, and it said William F. Buckley, Jr., emblazoned on

this beautiful white envelope. And it was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, basically. I was opening it up, and inside was my golden ticket. There was a letter from William F. Buckley, Jr. offering me to come to his house and to play piano for him. And that was the beginning of my adventure with William F. Buckley Jr. going to his house 30 years ago next month. Now, now, hang on, hang on. It's one thing to write a letter to William F. Buckley and to get a response. But he invited you to come to his apartment on Park Avenue and, what was it, 73rd Street? Yeah. to play piano with him. Basically to play a recital for him.

He accepted my invitation, my gift. And he said in the letter, I'm off to Europe in the spring, but when I come back in spring of 95, I'd love to hear you play and to meet you. And I came over to his house, and people will read about this obviously in the book. But the incredible thing was I walked over,

you know, I went over to the east side, I walked up to these amazing gilded iron doors on 73rd in Park, rang the doorbell. I was just 19, and the door opens up, and it's William F. Buckley, Jr., letting me into his house to play piano. It's pretty incredible. I mean, I close the world. It really is like something out of a dream. Yeah. And I experienced some of that because I did meet him a few times.

It is, it's an interesting thing, too, because the younger you are, the more it feels that way. The older you get, the less, in a sense, you're able to have those kinds of feelings. There's something about, you know, being young, and you just look up to these men or whomever, like a living God. You can't believe that he's stepped out of the pages of myth and you get to see him in the flesh. So what an amazing thing. So tell us more about your encounter with him. Well, I can't agree with you, first of all, more in terms of the mythological side of this. Because, yes, it was in part because I was a kid that I looked at that way.

But even now, just having turned 49, I look back at this. And it's as amazing as it was then. Because I think about how busy he was. he was at that point writing three columns a week, editing National Review, host of firing line, doing all these public speeches, traveling all over the place, had all his hobbies, and he found time for me. And that day it was one hour. It was around 5 p.m.

And I recount this actually. I think it's a really great anecdote that I'll give away. There's much more in the book, but it was one of my favorite stories that I would recount about Bill Buckley. I didn't know what to buy for the man who had everything. And out of, you know, in silliness, it seems really silly looking back. But one of my friends said, you know, I couldn't buy alcohol. I couldn't buy anything else, really. I was thinking, what do I get him?

And a friend of mine said, why don't you buy fresh squeezed orange juice for him? Because everyone loves fresh squeezed orange juice. And the naivete on my part, I thought, okay, great. I lived across the street from Zabars. I went and I got two, you know, quarts of fresh squeezed orange juice. juice for William F. Buckley Jr. I go to the east side. He opens the door and I said, Mr. Buckley, I have something for you. I fresh squeezed orange juice and he looked inside and he said, is it from Israel? And I said, not from Israel. It's from Zabars. In all serious.

Close enough. Close enough. That says he's going to get to Israel. He's not going into Zabars. You're not going to get a super waspy goy from the east side and Park Avenue to darken the door of Zabar. So you had to bring it to him. It was pretty amazing. So we walked through the door and I walked by this amazing harpsichord that he had. Everything lived up to the myth. That's the other thing. It's one thing when you walk into a mythological person's home and it doesn't live up. But there's another thing when everything that you imagined actually exists, right? So there was this harpsichord. There were all these paintings. There's this incredible sweeping staircase, you know, up to the second floor of this Masonette 5,000 square foot. Gilded age. They always call his apartment a masonette. I mean, I still pass it because I don't live too far from there. But I always remember that they called it a masonet.

And I thought, why does he get to call it a masonette? You know, it's just a funny thing. It's like somebody just decided it's a masonette. It's like they call the bus to the Hamptons. No, that's not the, it's a jitney. It's a jitney. So they call it the masonet. But I have been, just after he passed away, a friend of mine was involved in selling the property.

And we got to spend some time there. but it's a, it's a magnificent space. It's the kind of place you would imagine William F. Buckley would live in. And of course, he also had a huge home on the water in Stanford. That's another story. Did you ever get to visit that place? I did. I visited there.

And it also lived up. But, you know, it was more modest. In a way, that home, he and Pat, they built up over decades. And, of course, when you walked in, it felt like kind of a Victorian home, a little bit of Gainsborough type of painting or something, but she really made this kind of modest home into this magical place as well. And, you know, but back to the Masonette, going into the library there, which is this red room. And again, it was plush, you know, everything was plush about it and everything like that. And we sat down, we had an amazing conversation. You know, he just welcomed me in such a

wonderful way. And he had someone there to break the age as well. There was a younger guy there, Drew Oliver, who I think is the son of the former FTC chairman. And we basically walked in to the piano room, which was the living room, which was about a thousand square feet on its own, maybe more. And he had this amazing Buzendorfer piano, which is a Viennese, Austrian imperial piano. Of course, that's what William F. Buckley Jr. would have. And it came from Pat Buckley's side of the family, actually. And I sat down and I played a piece by Bach, a piece by Debussy, a piece by Liszt, a piece

by list. And in between, he asked me about my family, about the works of music, all of this. And had that been, Eric, the only thing that I've ever experienced in my life, it wouldn't be enough for a book, of course, it would be something as a tale of lore and I would carry it around for the rest of my life. But everything else that happened after that was Buckley is what ended up becoming a book. And it really is the story of my life in many ways. Well, and the title of the book, which is just out, is American Impressario, referring, of course, to William F. Buckley Jr., the great William F. Buckley Jr. The book is American Impressario. It is by my guest today, Lawrence Perlman. We will continue the conversation with Lawrence Perlman about the book American Impressario. Don't go away. Folks, welcome back. We're talking about William F. Buckley Jr. I got to say, it's one of my favorite subjects. William F. Buckley, Jr. We're talking about somebody

who was his friend, Lawrence Perlman, who's written a book called American Impressario. So before we go too far, what have you been doing since you met him at age 19 in the three decades since? Are you a professional musician? Did you follow that path? Well, what ended up happening was I realized a couple years later that the world did not need another concept. concertianist. As talented as I was in some ways in musical, I didn't have the capacity for a career. And I always wanted to advise artists in a way. I was always very fascinated about the business of music. And one of the big dreams that I had was to start a channel for classical music and performing arts here in the States because many channels from PBS onwards kind of gave up that

territory. And I felt that a big part of our culture, if you're not visible in media, of course, you're invisible. And for something that's a great achievement of our civilization, that being classical music, we need a place. We need a place at the table in terms of a piece in the media landscape. And an idea that I had that I even bounced off with Bill many years ago was working on making Carnegie Hall into a channel in some way. And so that's a dream that did come true 20 years later. I'm a co-founder. and business strategy consultant for a streaming service called Carnegie Hall Plus. But in parallel to that, I've worked with many of the great conductors and institutions around the world,

including the Saltzburg Festival and many others on communications, general strategy, and other things. I've been living the dream in terms of the performing arts and classical music in particular to keep us visible and relevant. And Bill Buckley is the big catalyst. Just to segue for a second, that firing line, when Bill has... had all this power. If you think about a three or four channel universe four decades ago, which is hard to believe today when everyone has a channel in their pocket, imagine what power in a way he had on a cultural level with a program like firing line in a four channel universe. And we have to be clear for people listening. So yeah, in the days of ABC, CBS, NBC,

and then there'd be maybe a few local affiliates. And then there was PBS. And every single week on PBS, William F. Buckley Jr., the Arch Conservative, amazingly, had a conversation program of about a half an hour. I do something called Socrates in the city, which in some ways is similar. But the idea that PBS allowed him,

this voice of genuinely, genuine conservatism to be on PBS every single week. And people tuned in, even people who hated him tuned in, because he was so fascinating, so extraordinarily compelling. And so you're quite right, he had an amazing footprint in the culture. So you were going to say more about that. Yeah, I mean, his footprint in the culture and his decision about what to talk about. So he would bring up sometimes, very often, he would bring up classical music and Bach in particular. He would had Rosalind Turrick, who was one of the great pianists and harpsichordists on the program, and she would not only talk about Bach and his relevance and what she was doing and Bill

asking incredible questions, you can watch some of these episodes on YouTube, but then she would actually play Bach. She would play for 15 minutes on this program. And so I imagine that in that time, to be able to hear that for millions of people were influenced in a major, major way, but only because Bill saw to it as relevant. So one week he would have Mother Teresa or Muhammad Ali, but then another week he would have Alan Ginsberg, and then he would have a great pianist on to talk about Bach. And you mentioned it already that Bill's capacity for today when we think about it's such a quaint idea. But talking to others that did not align with him was not only sport, but it was something that he welcomed. He wanted to.

to hear other sides of issues and kind of dig deep into it. He was one of the great debaters, of course, in history at Yale. But he used that talent to also build friendships. So he was friends with John Kenneth Galbraith, who was diametrically opposed to Milton Friedman, who was another friend of his. So his ability to bring people together was kind of astounding by today's measure.

And one of the lines that stuck out really in my 13-14-year friendship with Bill, which we'll come back to, was that he said to me once at a dinner party when I asked him a political question at the end of an evening. He looked at me and he said, Larry, politics is my vocation, not my avocation. And I think that those couldn't be more valuable words today in many respects, that he who's the ultimate conservative, who is the ultimate political thinker, who ran one of the most important publications and programs, et cetera, et cetera, for him moving away from that in the evenings, going sailing and doing other things, but then coming to music was so important.

And it kind of speaks volumes to the kind of person that he was and the importance of culture outside of just the political battle 24-7. And it's interesting, and I have wondered many, many times what he would have made of Donald Trump. It's interesting because I think Trump seems so dramatically different than Buckley that it's hard not to think that Buckley would at least on some level wrinkle his nose at Trump. But who knows? Because the landscape has changed so dramatically that, you know, if you have a choice between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, well, it strikes me that, you know, you have to side with Donald Trump, but we'll never know. And I just find it absolutely fascinating.

We're going to go to another break, folks. I'm talking to the author of a brand new book about William F. Buckley Jr. The book is American Impressario, and my guest is Lawrence Perlman. Don't go away. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to the author of American Impressario about William F. Buckley Jr. The author is Lawrence Perlman, who said, I can call him Larry. Larry, it's fascinating and delightful to speak with Hugh about this.

And I think when I think of Buckley, as I said, having met him a number of times, he was a larger-than-life figure. There were figures like that when I think of old New York. I had the privilege of knowing Thomas Wolfe. there are in fact the first time I ever met Ed Koch speaking of old New York was at Buckley's Maisonet it was shortly after Buckley had passed away

and they were selling it and there was kind of a gathering of people there but there were these larger than life figures from old New York and they seem mostly gone New York is not the New York that it was when Buckley was walking around no I agree and those basically after I met Bill that initial time in 1995, what was astounding about it was I participated in many, many dinners. And I can get to that in a moment by setting the table a little bit here.

After writing this first letter for Bill, I stayed in touch with him for a few years. And I wondered, how do I get back through the door? Because, as you know, getting through the door the first time is tough. But getting through the door the second time is really a lot harder. And I transferred back to Minnesota where I grew up. to finish up political science and music and McAllister College, definitely not one of the conservative colleges in America. And I finished up at McAllister,

and I was sitting at graduation, and Kofi Annan was the commencement speaker of all people. And I was thinking, you know, what do I do is my next act here? Like, how do I get back to New York and become kind of an impresario myself? I want to be in the music business. What do I do?

And I thought, what better than to write to William F. Buckley, Jr., again. But this time with a very bold statement. And basically I said in a nutshell, I want to do for classical music that which you've done for conservatism in America. And I got a phone call from the same assistant this time saying he wants to see you. And it turned out that my letter came in at the right time for Bill and the right time for me. He had just had lunch with Skyler Chapin, who was then the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs in the Giuliani administration, who was telling Bill over lunch that music and arts education were being reintroduced in the city schools after 30-year. absence. And Bill, sitting there, of course, having grown up homeschooled in Sharon, Connecticut,

with nine brothers and sisters practicing piano every day or every other day and listening to classical music in a closed-up room with tutors, couldn't believe that people would go decades without hearing classical music. And he was wondering, what happened to generations of New Yorkers who never heard the sound of Mozart, Beethoven, et cetera? And so here's this young kid, 22, writes this letter and says this bold statement. So he thought, why not give him a grant? And he gave me a grant through his foundation, which brought me back to New York to work on this research project for him personally. And that was a $25,000 grant. Now, think about it. This was the second time I ever saw Bill Buckley in my life. And he on spec basically gave me this grant. And this is transformative power. This is

something that makes me truly believe in an extraordinary side of humanity and the generosity that people are capable of. Who was I? I was just the average kid from St. Paul, Minnesota, writing a couple of letters. And he opened up his entire world. And that is where I became privy to these dinner parties, these larger-than-life gatherings. And basically, this continued until the end of Bill's life in 2008. And after I worked on this project, we started a tradition where every six or eight months, I would learn a different piano work for he and the editors of National Review and their friends and Pat's friends.

And I would play these recitals at their home on 73rd and then out at Wallach's Point in Stanford. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. And you were near him when he passed away. Yes, I was. It is actually right now 17 years of, ago this past week that Bill passed away. And the final work that he had asked me to learn was Beethoven's magnum opus Diabelli variations. And for the uninitiated listeners here, it's a tough,

it's a tough piece to both play and to listen to, but worth it. Worth it. Do it for William F. Buckley, Jr. and listen to this piece. So I learned it for Bill reluctantly at the end. We had this back and forth saying, you know, I didn't like the piece. I told him I hate the piece. And another piece that I offered him the list sonata he hated. But finally, I gave in and he won. And I played it for him and his siblings in what turned out to be the last gathering of the Buckley siblings the week before. Tell me again the name of the piece that we're talking about. It's called the Diabelli Variations by Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.

Okay. Diabelli variations, yes. And it runs about 40 minutes. It is the last major piano work that Beethoven wrote. It's totally completely celestial in nature. And it is the end of a person's life. In a way, I think Bill, if I'm going to project on to Bill here, I would say that he wanted to hear something that was the summation of a life.

And this was a summation of Beethoven's output in a way through this piece of music. And I was to play it at his house on February 27, 2008, for a gathering of his friends. He really wanted to hear it again. And he invited me the night. before. He said, come have dinner and practice in the house on the 27th. So I came out there on the 26th in the evening. We had this incredible dinner. We toasted with vodka at the beginning. I mean, it was, it was, again, one of these surreal situations where he knew I was a Russian Jewish kid, you know,

and he said, would you like some vodka? We were having some red caviar, of course, why not? And I said, sure. And we went from cocktails to vodka to wine and everything in between. And of course, he was on oxygen tank and he wasn't as mobile as he had been. He'd been through struggles physically and everything, but mentally everything, it was Bill. And the next morning, I was practicing Gano. I was practicing the Diabelli. And Bill was in his study, which was right next door to the house, a converted barn. I like to say kind of conservatism's Sistine Chapel with all of his memorabilia, everything from his long life. And he was right. writing his final book on Ronald Reagan, his protege, Ronald Reagan. And as I was practicing,

Bill passed away. And the recital never happened that evening. That is almost unbelievable, but it's true. What an amazing story. Amazing. We just have a few minutes left. I know in the book you talk about his virtues. Virtues were important to him. His faith obviously was important to him, but when we come back, we just have a few minutes to talk about how you hope your book, American and Presario, will help inspire readers to emulate Buckley's virtues, which you cite as being a return to civil discourse, anonymous philanthropy, faith, patriotism, and fostering relationships between mentor and protege as part of a goal to reweave the fabric of our nation's character. We'll be right back.

Welcome back talking to Lawrence Perlman, whose new book is out, American Impressario, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the birth of William F. Buckley Jr. So in the book, you talk about having witnessed firsthand his virtues and how you hope this book will inspire people to emulate those virtues. Absolutely. Well, I think the subtitle of the book is William F. Buckley, Jr. and the elements of American character. And I think that what makes Bill's character and other virtues so American and so extraordinary is the willingness to bring people into the fold.

I mean, for me, writing a letter to William F. Buckley Jr., as everyone you heard here, was an unlikely kind of master's stroke of luck. But at the same time, should it be luck? I think that in Bill Buckley's world, it wasn't luck. In Bill Buckley's world, he created a culture around him that made sure that every letter, that was sent to him was answered. He dictated thousands of letters. When he passed away, the Yale Archive received 1,100 shoeboxes full of his correspondence. And when you think about that, that is a testament to who William F. Buckley, Jr. was for me, above everything else, because it drove everything. It drove his communications. It drove his friendships. It drove his

faith in that understanding that if someone writes to me, I'm going to write back to them, because who knows what might actually be there on the other side. And that drives your patriotism, your love of country. You know, call me quaint in this, but I believe that these are fundamental elements of what makes this country America, that a kid from who's born of parents who just came to America can meet one of the most consequential figures who's a Catholic, you know, who comes from an old family, an established family, and were both human beings. He was the most accessible in a way person.

He was completely normal and more comfortable in his skin than really anyone that I've probably met. Outside of my family, I would say that he was extraordinary comfortable. And that allowed him to create this world around him. That is the tale of this book. And what I want to leave readers and listeners with is try to emulate this in answering communication. in speaking with people that we don't necessarily agree with and taking a page out of, out of his book, not to be too metaphorical. Well, I mean, Buckley is, you know, when people talk about a legend, he's a legendary figure.

He was a legendary figure before he passed away, an extraordinary figure. I, you know, somewhat similar to you, my mother grew up in East Germany, communist East Germany. My father grew up in Greece, war-torn Greece, which was almost taken over by the communist. So my parents hated me, raised me to hate communism. And my father loved Buckley because of that, an immigrant to this country who would read Buckley's column, who knew that Buckley was an extraordinary man who stood strongly against communism. And obviously was one of the people that helped Reagan become president, which ended the Cold War, brought down the iron curtain. Just an extraordinary mythical figure. So the idea that I, the son of European immigrants,

got to meet Buckley, there is something beautiful and fitting about it as you share your story. I'm just, I'm glad you wrote a book about it. I'm glad it's available. Who's the publisher for the book? The publisher is Postal Press, the imprint Bombardier Press. Bumbert-Dade books, exactly. So Postal Press, Bumbride Books. Well, the book is American Impressorio. The author is Lawrence Perlman, P-E-R-E-L, Perlman. Lawrence Perlman, it's been a joy to speak with you.

Since you live in New York, I look forward to meeting you in person. Absolutely. In the meantime, thank you for writing American Impressario for coming on this program. God bless you. Thank you, Eric. I really appreciate the opportunity. and for getting the message out there of this book. Thank you.

To be continued.