Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3068

Form letter from William F. Buckley, Jr., with Heath’s response on the reverse in Spencer MacCallum’s hand as dictated by Heath.

May 11, 1960

 

 

 

 

   Wm. F. Buckley, Jr.

  150 East 35^th Street

  New York 16, New York

 

May 11, l960

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

I was very sorry indeed to note that your subscription to National Review has lapsed. All of us here had hoped you had found us useful during the past year; the disappointment, as I say, is keen. National Review can ill afford to lose you; nor, for that matter, can the whole movement for an enlightened conservatism.

There is one heartening possibility: our circulation department is not renowned for its infallibility, and it is just possible that we failed to notify you that your subscription was up for renewal. If that is the case, would you accept our profound apologies and check the appropriate square in the enclosed form?

      If you intend to give up reading the magazine, would you do us a farewell favor and indicate, in a word or two, why? We, and future readers, would be very grateful to you for any advice that might lead

to improving the magazine.

 

Yours sincerely,

/s/

Wm. F. Buckley, Jr.

 

_______________________________________________________

 

 

Dear Mr. Buckley:

 

I haven’t renewed my subscription mostly because I’ve been traveling and the magazine has not been reaching me conveniently. I always enjoy reading it when it does catch up with me. If I have any criticism, it will be in terms of what the magazine does not undertake rather than against what it accomplishes. Instead of always harking back to the times and liberties we’ve lost, I’d rather see more emphasis on the opportunities and potentials in the development of which we’ll be blessed if and when we survive.

 

      What I’m trying to say is that I will feel more spiritually at home when I can join up with those who are seeking fresh power and light instead of shuddering and complaining in the dark, lamenting the dying out of the old flames. I believe Nature (God) has endowed us with potentialities for burgeoning growth and life, both individually and in our non-violent, free-enterprise, golden-rule type of organic solidarity — that creative alternatives are only waiting to be explored and understood whereby we can grow out of our present darkness instead of trying to fight and complain our way out of it. I am much more concerned for transcendence through growth than for victory in combat. If we do not understand these things, we can at least have faith in God and His powers not merely to save but to transfigure and glorify us.

 

 

    Cordially,

 

 

    Spencer Heath