The Wall Street Journal Reviews "American Impresario"...!

"...Lawrence Perelman’s sweet and guileless memoir of his 14-year friendship with Buckley." - The Wall Street Journal

Dear Friends and Readers,

I’m honored that today The Wall Street Journal published a review of my book American Impresario: William F. Buckley and the Elements of American Character; it will appear in the hard copy edition tomorrow, May 31, 2025. To have my book reviewed by this esteemed newspaper is one of the greatest honors of my life.

My book is reviewed alongside Sam Tanenhaus’s new biography Buckley which will be published on Tuesday, June 3. Here’s an excerpt from the review pertaining to American Impresario:

“But Buckley’s trusting nature was an expression of his generosity, which is the theme of “American Impresario,” Lawrence Perelman’s sweet and guileless memoir of his 14-year friendship with Buckley. Mr. Perelman, a young piano student at the Manhattan School of Music when he met Buckley in 1994, credits the man with changing his life. The memoirist was a musician whose Jewish parents fled the Soviet Union in 1975; they revered Buckley for his antipathy to communism and antisemitism. Mr. Perelman, who performed many recitals for Buckley and his circle of friends in the late ’90s and early 2000s, eventually found a lucrative career as an entrepreneur in arts promotion. He credits Buckley for always believing he would find success.

‘Milton Friedman said that Bill’s greatest quality was his friendship,’ Mr. Perelman writes, ‘but I would go one step further and say that his trust was his greatest quality.’”

For those of you who have purchased bought my book, thank you! For those of you interested in purchasing it, you can do so at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all online shops where fine books are sold (see here). American Impresario is also available as a digital and audiobook (from Audible and many others).

Thank you to those who have read my book! I’ve received so much wonderful feedback from around the world. Thanks to those who have reviewed and rated the book at Amazon and Goodreads. If you have time please review or rate the book, that is, if you liked it!

Please consider giving the gift of American Impresario to a friend or recent high school or college graduate. I wrote to Bill Buckley at eighteen and it changed my life. The reason I wrote this book is to inspire the next generation of mentors and proteges! Father’s Day is also around the corner and this could make for the perfect gift for future mentors.

If you’re interested in some of my interviews about my friendship with William F. Buckley, Jr., you can find my appearance on Firing Line with Margaret Hoover. here. and an excerpt of my interview with Maria Bartiromo, here.

Other reviews of American Impresario include Jacob Heilbrunn’s review for The American Conservative, Alec Dent’s for The Dispatch and Katherine Howell’s for National Review.

Thank you so much for reading and feel free to forward this to someone you think will enjoy this book and its message.

All best wishes,

Larry Perelman