I used to read my folk’s copy of National Review back then. When I got married they got me my own subscription. It killa me how the wheels came off after Buckley passed.
Someone who knew the old NR well said that the real heart of NR had been Buckley’s older sister Priscilla. She was the managing editor actually running the magazine, choosing whom to publish. When she stepped down the magazine began its decline. William F. didn’t do much other than act as the official greeter. He never wrote any articles, which you may have noticed. I subscribed from 1977 until about 1992. By then it was no longer worth reading and Chronicles was where proto-MAGA was being born with Sam Francis as its prophet.