Alistair Cooke

Classics stand the test of time, and Alistair Cooke's history of America is a classic. Nearly three decades have passed since the original edition of America -- based on journalist-historian Cooke's extraordinarily popular thirteen-part television series -- sold more than a million copies. Yet Cooke's view of America's dynamic past and its impact upon the always-changing present continues to provide striking insights into the singular character...

Drawing on a lifetime of journalistic encounters with the great and the famous, Alistair Cooke profiles the six extraordinary men who impressed him the most Over the course of his sixty-year career as a broadcaster, television host, and newspaper reporter, Alistair Cooke met many remarkable people of the twentieth century. This entertaining and insightful collection shares his unique, often startling personal vision of six key figures from the worlds...

As the voice of the BBC's Letter from America for close to six decades, Alistair Cooke addressed several millions of listeners on five continents. They tuned in every Friday evening or Sunday morning to listen to his erudite and entertaining reports on life in the United States. According to Lord Hill of Luton, chairman of the BBC, Cooke had "a virtuosity approaching genius in talking about America in human terms." This second collection of Cooke's...

Masterful essays by one of the most distinctive voices in broadcast journalism In his Letter from America reports for the BBC and as the host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, Alistair Cooke addressed millions of people all over the world every week. The fourteen essays collected here, each of which was first delivered as a speech, showcase the wit, charm, and eloquence of Cooke's voice in more intimate, but no less intimidating, settings. In exclusive...

As the voice of the BBC's Letter from America for close to six decades, Alistair Cooke addressed several millions of listeners on five continents. They tuned in every Friday evening or Sunday morning to listen to his erudite and entertaining reports on life in the United States. According to Lord Hill of Luton, chairman of the BBC, Cooke had "a virtuosity approaching genius in talking about America in human terms." That virtuosity is displayed to...

Alistair Cooke looks back on a rich and varied life, one which has taken him across the ocean but never far away from the BBC.
Drawing on archive recordings, this selection includes interviews from radio and television, Cooke's Letter From America, and a speech made to the Royal Television Society at New York's Cosmopolitan Club.
It charts the journalist's career from his first trip to America as a young Cambridge graduate to the establishment

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