Christopher Buckley
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Christopher Taylor Buckley (born 1952) is an American political satirist and author of several novels. He is the son of William F. Buckley, Jr.. His novels include God Is My Broker, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, The White House Mess, No Way to Treat A First Lady, Wet Work, Florence of Arabia and, most recently, Boomsday.
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[edit] Life
After a classical education at the Portsmouth Abbey School, Buckley, like his father, graduated from Yale University, as a member of Skull and Bones. He became managing editor of Esquire Magazine and later worked as the chief speechwriter for Vice President George H. W. Bush. This experience led to his novel The White House Mess, a satire on White House office politics. (The title refers to the White House lunchroom, which is known as the "mess" because the Navy operates it.)
Thank You for Smoking is another satire, its protagonist a lobbyist for the tobacco industry, Nick Naylor. He followed that with more humor about Washington in the form of Little Green Men, about the government agency investigating UFO sightings. His No Way To Treat A First Lady has the president's wife on trial for assassinating her husband and Florence of Arabia is about a do-gooding State Department bureaucrat in the Middle East. His one serious novel, Wet Work, is about a billionaire businessman avenging his granddaughter's death from drugs.
Thank You for Smoking has been adapted into a movie written and directed by Jason Reitman starring Aaron Eckhart. It was released on March 17, 2006.
Buckley also wrote the non-fiction Steaming To Bamboola, about the merchant marine, as well as contributed to a groundbreaking oral history of Milford, Connecticut, and is an editor at Forbes Magazine.
He has two children with his wife and a son with PR woman Irina Woelfle.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Satirical Novels
- The White House Mess (1986)
- Thank You for Smoking (1994)
- God Is My Broker : A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth (1998) (written with John Tierney)
- Little Green Men (1999)
- No Way to Treat a First Lady (2002)
- Florence of Arabia (2004)
- Boomsday (2007) [1]
[edit] Films based on Buckley's novels
- Thank You for Smoking (2006) (Directed by Jason Reitman, Screenplay also by Reitman)
- Little Green Men (Expected to be released sometime in 2008) (Directed by Whit Stillman, Screenplay by Sean Bates and Gregory Mackenzie)
[edit] Travelogues
- Steaming to Bamboola - The World of a Tramp Freighter (1983)
- Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the Nation's Capital (2003)
[edit] Other
- My Harvard, My Yale (1981) (contributor, segment "Stoned in New Haven") (university biography)
- Campion: A Play in Two Acts (1990) (written with James Macguire) (play)
- Wet Work (1991) (serious novel)
- Wry Martinis (1997) (short story collection)
[edit] External links
- Christopher Buckley at the Internet Movie Database
- 1986 audio interview of Christopher Buckley, RealAudio
- Biography at Greater Talent Network
- The Roquefort Cheese Wars
- NOW. Arts & Culture. Christopher Buckley PBS interview by David Brancaccio.
- Memo From Coach
- Novelist Buckley, Smoking Out the Self-Righteous
- Christopher Buckley - 2002 National Book Festival
- NadaPress.com - The Home of Buckley Prose
- Let’s quit while we’re behind
- James L. Buckley, uncle, U.S. Senator, author of Gleanings from an Unplanned Life
