R.I.P. William F. Buckley, Jr.

Most obitiuaries will cite his achievements/notoriety in other fields, but among the many hats worn by the late conservative icon was that of spy novelist. Buckley's amorous hero, Yale-educated CIA agent Blackford Oakes (not to be confused with John Gardner's Boysie Oakes) was perhaps most distinctive among his fictional brethren for bedding the Queen of England in his debut adventure, Saving the Queen (1976). Interestingly, Oakes' Cold War adventures were not contemporary. While they were written between 1976 and 2005, they took place between 1952 and 1987. This enabled Buckley to work his protaganist into real-world intelligence operations. The final Blackford Oakes novel was Last Call For Blackford Oakes.