Know Your Enemy
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The Conservative and the Convict (w/ Sarah Weinman)
🕑 Added 2022-05-09 17:19:46 +0000 UTCSarah Weinman's new book—Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free—is a gripping true crime story, and perhaps the tale of an ill-fated love triangle. It also is a story about William F. Buckley, Jr., who defied expectations to show mercy to a death-row prisoner, Edgar Smith, after finding out that he supposedly read National Review. In this episode, Weinman joins Matt and Sam to talk about this fascinating, half-forgotten episode from a key period in Buckley's life and career—how Smith and Buckley met; what Buckley did for him; the role played by Sophie Wilkins, Smith's editor at Knopf, in what happened; and the sad ending toward which it all careened.
Sources:
Sarah Weinman, Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free (Ecco Press, February 2022)
Sam Adler-Bell, "The Conservative and the Murderer," New Republic, March 7, 2022
Christopher Buckley, Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir (Twelve Books, May 2009)
Garry Wills, "Daredevil," Atlantic, July/August 2009
Sophie Wilkins, trans., The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil (1930, 2017)
Alexander Chee, "Mr. and Mrs. B," Apology Magazine, Winter 2014
Comments
John Kerber
Suggestion for an Episode: I am interested in the appeal of Roman Catholicism to right wing intellectuals. It appears that several conservative thinkers, such as J.D. Vance, Soharb Ahmari, J.D. Vance to name just a few, have converted to Catholicism in recent years. Why Catholicism and not just some other conservative Protestant. denomination? I am particularly interested in what Matt has to say about this.
Mark K
Book idea: “Sophie and Pat: A History of Dealing with Bill’s BS”
Eric Nelsen
Thank you! Another great episode, now I've read the book and then re-listened to the episode again besides! Such a rich topic. (One little tiny Bergen County quibble: Mahwah is pronounced like it looks, two short a's.)
Kyle
I picked up a copy of “Scoundrel” as soon as I heard this episode. Sophie Wilkins is the star of that book.
Know Your Enemy
We talked about the Alexander Chee essay on a relatively early bonus episode on Buckley and Gore Vidal
JW
I figured it out…we both read this piece by Sam: https://newrepublic.com/article/165580/scoundrel-book-review-buckley-edgar-smith-conservative-murderer
JW
Was going to post the same thing.
William Fedullo
Had this been mentioned in a previous episode? I’m having some Mandela effect where I swear to God I’ve seen this episode before.
