String of Pearls: On the News Beat in New York and Paris Book

Priscilla Buckley is probably best known for her long and admired tenure as managing editor of the conservative political journal, National Review, founded in the 1950s by her brother William F. Buckley Jr. But in String of Pearls we meet a different Priscilla -- young Pitts Buckley, just out of Smith, anxious for the next step up from the college paper to "real" journalism. There she is, in her proper wool suit, her cashmere sweater and her string of pearls, notebook at the ready, United Press Radio News Department's fledgling employee. The war in Europe was winding to its close. Buckley found the atmosphere in UP's New York offices a heady one, where the journalists worked furiously but found time to play practical jokes, stage mock battles on the newsroom floor, and treasure the funny stories that haste and tension engender.Young Priscilla fit right in; she made friends, wrote copy for the reporters to read on the air ("keep the sentences short!"), and found the life fun and sometimes hilarious, demanding, sometimes heartbreaking, and always vibrant. The author was pleased a few years later to be offered a job at the Paris Bureau of the United Press.The young writer who had spent some of her girlhood years living in pre-war France with her parents and her numerous siblings found a different Paris at war's end; scars of the prolonged occupation were everywhere.It was a poignant time, but Priscilla and her friends found laughter and comic misadventures as well, and she shares them with us, along with varied characters gathered at United Press at the time. Buckley's stay in Paris was cut short by a summons from brother Bill: would she be interested in working with him on the new magazine he was starting?Thus ended her UP days, and thus began a new and glowing journalistic career. The book has charming illustrations by the author's niece, Lee Buckley, and an afterword by her brother William F. Buckley Jr. AUTHORBIO: Priscilla L. Buckley was managing editor of National Review for 27 years, and retired last year as senior editor. She lives in Sharon, Connecticut and continues to write.Read More