Letter from America: 1946-2004 - Couverture souple

Alistair Cooke was a radio legend, entertaining millions of listeners for over fifty years in his weekly Letter from America. It was the longest-running one-man series in radio history, and every show was a virtuoso performance. Wise and witty, informed yet informal, Cooke was the doyen of foreign correspondents. To correspond with the 2008 election, and the centenary of Alistair Cooke’s birth, here are five Letters about previous presidents and their elections over the past sixty years, in which Cooke – one of the world’s most famous letter writers and radio’s greatest observer – reflects on American life and politics. Starting with Truman’s surprise victory in 1948 and concluding with another surprise win, that of George W. Bush in 2000 – he comments on opinion polls, democracy, the difference between Democrats and Republicans, Bill Clinton’s fashion sense and what Clinton’s symbolic rejection of ‘the blue blazer’ meant to the American political system. In each Letter, his unique style of expression and analysis shines through. The Letters are introduced by the BBC’s North America editor, Justin Webb, who sets them in their historical context and reflects on what has changed since Cooke’s original broadcasts and what has not. 'Cooke's debonaire, transatlantic tones are unmistakable...' - FT Magazine.

1 CD. 1 hr 17 mins.

Alistair Cooke was born in 1908 in Salford, Lancashire. His birth name was Alfred, but he changed it to Alistair at the age of 22. In 1932, he won a Harkness Fellowship to Yale and Harvard, and he emigrated to America in 1937, where he scripted a regular Letter from London missive for NBC. In 1941, Cooke became an American citizen, and in 1946 he began broadcasting American Letter for the BBC (the programme's name was changed to Letter from America in 1950). The show's remit was to introduce his adopted country to his homeland by means of 'a weekly personal letter to a Briton by a fireside about American life and people and places in the American news'. It was immensely popular, and ran for 2869 broadcasts over 58 years - the longest-running one-man series in broadcasting history. Cooke received an honorary knighthood for his contribution to Anglo-American understanding in 1973. He died in 2004.