Book details

Book description

Alistair Cooke was the greatest of all twentieth century reporters of life in America to the rest of the world. Published to celebrate the centenary of his birth, this book presents the cream of his writings on the events that shaped modern American history, from the end of the Second World War through to the assassination of John Kennedy and of Bobby Kennedy (Cooke was actually present), the moon landings and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Almost all the material is previously unpublished in book form - transcripts of his legendary Letters from America , long-forgotten reports in the Guardian (whose correspondent in New York he was for 25 years) and other freshly discovered writings. The book will be illustrated throughout in full colour with iconic photographs of the events Cooke is describing. Alistair Cooke enjoyed an extraordinary life in print, radio and television. Born in Manchester in 1908 and educated at the universities of Cambridge, Yale and Harvard, he was the Guardian 's Senior Correspondent in New York for twenty-five years and the host of groundbreaking cultural programmes on American television and of the BBC series America . He was best known both at home and abroad for his weekly BBC broadcast Letter from America , which reported on fifty-eight years of US life, was heard over five continents and totalled 2,869 broadcasts before his retirement in February 2004, far and away the longest-running radio series in broadcasting history.