In its almost 60 years, much has been written about National Review, especially about those present at its creation. Most attention, of course, has been given to founder William F. Buckley, Jr., but others there at the beginning, such as James Burnham and Frank Meyer, have not been neglected. Yet no one, until now, has written at book length about the early National Review writer who ghostwrote one of the most widely read political documents in American history. A few years later, this same writer wrote a book that sold in the low thousands, but the few who did read it were given a primer on the judicial revolution that would eventually uncover such constitutionally created rights as abortion-on-demand and same-sex marriage. What happened to that man? In Living on Fire, Daniel Kelly tells Bozell’s poignant story.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1926, Brent Bozell liked sports, but his passions were public speaking and debate. So good was he that in 1944, in a nationwide competition involving 127,000 high-school students, he was named the best orator in the country and received a $4,000 college scholarship. The orator went into the Merchant Marine and later transferred to the Navy, where he wanted to be, not an officer, but a “common sailor.” Discharged in July 1946, Bozell began his Yale career the following September.

Having known...