Praise for Happy Days Were Here Again
“Most of the pleasure comes from Mr. Buckley’s exuberance, his enthusiasm for whatever task he has in hand, especially the chase. Anyone who gets so much fun out of life, and who can convey some of it through his writing, cannot help being likeable.”
—John Grimond, in The New York Times Book Review
“The collection ... is pure pleasure. I dare you to dip into it anywhere without becoming captivated by the bracing prose, the hard-edged political analysis, the gleeful puncturing of modern cultural idiocy. Most compelling, as always, is the logic, the point-by-point, flawless construction of each case. The notorious vocabulary sparkles everywhere, but the words hang on the strongest chain of unassailable argument.”
—Rush Limbaugh, in National Review
“I confess to an ailment common among Americans of liberal disposition: I have a large fondness for William F. Buckley Jr.... It should be said that while Buckley has issued many collections of columns and articles, this one is particularly good.”
—E. J. Dionne Jr., in Newsday
“The verve with which [Buckley] writes ... makes the reader feel the joy of intellectual combat.... This book is the work of a truly happy warrior.”
—American Way
“Slashing, energetic, acerbically witty.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Happy Days Were Here Again is a compelling reminder that good thoughts written well are never tiresome.... One reads this book with that ease that conjoins good writing, only looking back in reflection to see the verbal mastery. Here are inscribed those arguments we wish we had made ourselves. Buckley is, to use one of his favored expressions, the columnist à outrance.”
—The Dartmouth Review
“William F. Buckley is no Puritan. He has too much fun, and the verve and enthusiasm he radiates are part of the fun of reading him. Also the big words and foreign phrases that journalists say he shouldn’t use. I mean, the man might be lapidary, but he’s not eristic. Nicht wahr?”
—The Milwaukee Journal
“Perhaps what [William] Shawn said of the author’s sailing journal Windfall readily applies to this present work: ‘The Buckley style, thank goodness, is intact, and the humor is undiminished.”’
—The Columbia [S.C.] State
“Irreverent wit, erudition, and a joie de vivre which borders on barely repressed glee.”
—Daily Press, Newport News