The Old Lion of Conservative Literature

For nearly 35 years, H. W. (Harry) Crocker III ran the editorial department at Regnery Publishing—America’s then-leading conservative book publisher—in a storied career that made him an indispensable shaper of the conservative movement of the last half century (and included, for a while, doing double duty as editor of that one-time beacon of the conservative movement, The Conservative Book Club, and taking on journalistic stints as senior editor of The American Spectator, columnist at The National Catholic Register, and much else besides). His authors included everyone from Laura Ingraham to Josh Hawley; from Russell Kirk to Pat Buchanan; from Robert Nisbet to Rich Lowry; from Spencer Klavan to Michael Anton; from Marine drill sergeant R. Lee Ermey to Army general Keith Kellogg; from novelist Stephen Coonts to former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller; from Chuck Norris to Ted Nugent; and huge #1 bestsellers like Unlimited Access, about security breaches in the Clinton White House, and Unfit for Command, which ended John Kerry’s presidential ambitions; all the while maintaining the company’s Gateway series of classics in philosophy, theology, politics, and literature.  

But more than that, he has been in the arena of real politics as a political speechwriter, and he has written best-selling histories like Robert E. Lee on Leadership, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War, and Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church, and some of the funniest novels you’re likely to come across, from his classic The Old Limey to Armstrong and the Mexican Mystery (which I chose as a Spectator book of the year in 2022) to his current World War II thriller (which is equally full of wit) Kruger’s Korps.

I first met him when I was an editor at Human Events, which then shared office space with Regnery. We have stayed in touch over the years, even though, by his own admission, he now “lives in seclusion in the Deep South.” I recently had a chance to interview him and jumped at it. Here is the result of that exchange.

MULL: You’ve had a colorful career. What’s the “I just met you casually at a cocktail party” version?