The New York Times reports, “William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn.”

The “scourge of liberalism” may have become famous for criticizing Yale’s academics, but Buckley lauded Yale University Press for the Annals of Communism series. Buckley helped raise money for the research, which he called “a historical juggernaut capable of refashioning the trendy history in which so many American scholars were once ensnared.”

The Annals of Communism presents selected documents concerning the history of Soviet and international communism from Russian state and party archives. Virtually all the material contained in these archives has never before been available to Western or even Russian scholars. For more information, visit the series website here.

More of Buckley’s writing can be found in Bright Pages: Yale Writers, 1701-2001, edited and with an introduction by J.D. McClatchy.

Inspiring teachers, colliding ideas, great literature–such college experiences can stamp a young writer for life. This dazzling book contains the work of dozens of writers whose education at Yale over the last three centuries exerted a powerful force on their writing lives. The galaxy of authors ranges from Noah Webster to Gloria Naylor, and a bounty of their sermons, poems, essays, passages from novels, and short stories fills these bright pages.