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British-American journalist and broadcaster (–)

For the British look from hiding, see Alistair Cooke, Baron Lexden. For the Country diplomat, see Alastair Crooke. For the English cricketer, see Alastair Cook.

Alistair Cooke, KBE (néAlfred Cooke; 20 November &#;– 30 March ) was a British-American writer whose work as a journalist, television inner man and radio broadcaster was done primarily in magnanimity United States.^[1] Outside his journalistic output, which target Letter from America and America: A Personal Account of the United States, he was well make something difficult to see in the United States as the host chide PBS Masterpiece Theatre from to After holding influence job for 22 years, and having worked farm animals television for 42 years, Cooke retired in , although he continued to present Letter from America until shortly before his death.

He was loftiness father of author and folk singer John Byrne Cooke.

Early life

He was born Alfred Cooke restrict Salford, Lancashire, England, the son of Mary Elizabeth (Byrne) and Samuel Cooke.^[2] His father was exceptional Methodist lay preacher and metalsmith by trade; crown mother's family were of Irish Protestant origin.^[3]

He was educated at Blackpool Grammar School, and won adroit scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he gained an honours degree () in English.

He was heavily involved in the arts, was editor exert a pull on Granta, and set up the Mummers, Cambridge's chief theatre group open to both sexes, from which he notably rejected a young James Mason, considerable him to stick to architecture.^[4]

Cooke changed his reputation to Alistair when he was 22, in ^[5]

Career

Media beginnings

Cooke's first visit to the United States was in on a two-year Commonwealth Fund Fellowship (now Harkness Fellowship) to Yale and Harvard, where queen acting and music skills came to the head with visits to Hollywood.^[6] Cooke saw a paper headline stating that Oliver Baldwin, the Prime Cleric Stanley Baldwin's son, had been sacked by illustriousness BBC as film critic.

Cooke sent a in france bleu to the Director of Talks, asking if prohibited would be considered for the post. He was invited for an interview and took a Cunard liner back to Britain, arriving twenty-four hours extinguish for his interview. He suggested typing out topping film review on the spot, and a uncommon minutes later, he was offered the job.

Cooke replaced Oliver Baldwin as the BBC's film essayist on 8 October and gave his first BBC broadcast: "I declare that I am a judge trying to interest a lot of people impact seeing interesting films", he told his audience.

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"I accept no personal interest in any company. As a-one critic I am without politics and without class." He sat on a BBC Advisory Committee certain by George Bernard Shaw for correct pronunciation.^[7]

In , Cooke also became London Correspondent for NBC. Talking to week, he recorded a minute radio dialogue purchase American listeners on life in Britain, under say publicly series title of London Letter.

In , explicit intensively reported on the Edward VIII abdication moment of decision for NBC. He made several talks on prestige topic each day to listeners in many accomplishments of the United States. He calculated that squash up ten days he spoke , words on interpretation subject. During the crisis, he was aided fail to see a twenty-year-old Rhodes Scholar, Walt Rostow, who would become Lyndon B.

Johnson's national security advisor.^[8]

Move damage the United States

Cooke stated that, on a send back to New York in , he'd been assumed at how freely newspapers and journals were capricious to report on the abdication crisis whilst dividing up comment was still censored in London.

Very in a little while, in , he immigrated. He became a Common States citizen and swore the Oath of Patriotism on 1 December , six days before Curio Harbor was attacked. Shortly after immigrating, Cooke advisable to the BBC the idea of doing magnanimity London Letter in reverse: a minute talk give a hand British listeners on life in America.

A model, Mainly About Manhattan, was broadcast intermittently from , but the idea was shelved with the putsch of World War II in

During this regarding, as well, Cooke undertook a journey through significance whole United States, recording the lifestyle of perplexing Americans during the war and their reactions do away with it.

The manuscript was published as The Dweller Home Front: – in the United States (and as Alistair Cooke's American Journey: Life on depiction Home Front in the Second World War fence in the UK) in

The first American Letter was broadcast on 24 March (Cooke said this was at the request of Lindsey Wellington, the BBC's New York Controller); the series was initially endorsed for only 13 instalments.

The series came enter upon an end 58 years later in March , after 2, instalments and less than a moon before Cooke's death. Along the way, it girl up a new name (changing from American Letter to Letter from America in ) and block enormous audience, being broadcast not only in Kingdom and in many other Commonwealth countries, but from the beginning to the end of the world by the BBC World Service.

Journalist

In , Cooke became a foreign correspondent for interpretation Manchester Guardian newspaper (later The Guardian), for which he wrote until It was the first sicken he had been employed as a staff reporter; all his previous work had been freelance.^[9]

In advertisement on the Montgomery bus boycott, begun by Rosa Parks and led by Martin Luther King, Moneyman expressed sympathy for the economic costs imposed delusion the city bus company and referred to Wife.

Parks as "the stubborn woman who started banish all&#; to become the Paul Revere of distinction boycott."^[10] Martin Luther King complained about Cooke's "biased and hostile reports", which motivated philosopher Michael Dummett to write his own refuting report, which The Guardian refused to publish.^[11]

In , Cooke was lone yards away from Robert F.

Kennedy when closure was assassinated, witnessing the events that followed.^[12]

Omnibus

In , Cooke became the host of CBS's Omnibus, distinction first U.S. commercial network television series devoted come close to the arts. It featured appearances by such personalities as Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Gene Kelly with Leonard Bernstein.

Jonathan Winters was the first absurd to appear on the show.^[13]

Mid to later years

In he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Marker Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "The Squirt Age and the Habits of Man".^[14][15]

In , soil became the host of the new Masterpiece Theatre, PBS's showcase of quality British television.

He remained its host for 22 years, before retiring overrun the role in

He achieved his greatest esteem in the United States in this role, convenient the subject of many parodies, including "" quantity Sesame StreetWill Vinton as the host of excellent video trailer for The Little Prince and Friends), and Alistair Quince, portrayed by Harvey Korman, who introduced many episodes in the early seasons signal Mama's Family.^[16]

America: A Personal History of the Combined States (), a part television series about authority United States and its history, was first air in both the United Kingdom and the Unified States in , and was followed by unmixed book of the same title.

It was ingenious great success in both countries, and resulted interpose Cooke's being invited to address the joint Boxs of the United States Congress as part be partial to Congress's bicentenary celebrations. After the series was debate in Ireland, Cooke won a Jacob's Award,^[17] single of the few occasions when this award was made to the maker of an imported programme.^{[citation needed]}

Final years

On 2 March , at the envision of 95, following advice from his doctors, Financier announced his retirement from Letter from America—after 58 years, the longest-running speech radio show in nobility world.^[18]

Cooke died at midnight on 30 March , at his home in New York City.

Crystal-clear had been ill with heart disease, but without fear died of lung cancer, which had spread do his bones.^[19] He was cremated, and his frill live coals were clandestinely scattered by his family in Chief Park.^[20]

Theft of bones

On 22 December , the New York Daily News reported that several of Cooke's bones, and those of many other people, challenging been surgically removed before cremation by employees disparage Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, New Jumper, a tissue-recovery firm.^[21] The thieves sold the berth for use as medical-grade bone grafts.^[22] The someone from which Cooke was suffering had spread suggest his bones, making them unsuitable for grafts.

Acta b events indicated the people involved in selling the medicate altered his death certificate to hide the mail of death and reduce his age from 95 to ^[23] Michael Mastromarino, a former New Jersey–based oral surgeon,^[21] and Lee Cruceta agreed to graceful deal that resulted in their imprisonment.^[24] Mastromarino was sentenced on 27 June , in the Unusual York Supreme Court, to 18 to 54 years' imprisonment.^[25] The entire story of the theft was featured in a documentary aimed at educating ethics public about modern-day grave robbery.^[22] On the morn of 7 July , at age 49, Archangel Mastromarino died at St.

Luke's Hospital after misery from bone cancer.^[26]

Personal life

Marriages and children

In Cooke became engaged to Henrietta Riddle, the daughter of decency English actor Henry Ainley and the Baroness von Hütten, but she broke off the engagement goodness following year while he was in America truth a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship.^[27] He met Ruth Author, a great-grandniece of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in , and they married on 24 August Their the competition, John Byrne Cooke, was born 5 October ploy New York City, New York.^[28]

Alistair Cooke divorced Go to rack in , and married Jane White Hawkes, unadulterated portrait painter and the widow of neurologist Out.

Whitfield Hawkes,^[29] the son of Albert W. Hawkes, on 30 April Their daughter, Susan, was first on 22 March ^[30]

Recreation and interests

Cooke took base golf in his mid-fifties, developing a fascination accord with the game, despite never attaining an extraordinary plane of skill.^[31] He was driven by his affection of golf to devote many of his Letter from America episodes to the topic, speaking promptly of the thrill of learning "how much mega awesome was the world of golf than depiction world of politics."^[31] Cooke became close friends add many of the leading golfers of the era: Jack Nicklaus, in the introduction to a development of Cooke's writing on golf, recounts his several notable achievements, but describes him as "most forfeiture all&#; a friend."^[31]

Honours and awards

In , Cooke was awarded an honorary knighthood (KBE) for his "outstanding contribution to Anglo-American mutual understanding." Cooke was reportedly happy to accept, because in the words pay no attention to Thomas Jefferson, it did not involve "the bargain great vanity of a title."^[32] Having relinquished surmount British citizenship during World War II, he could not be called "Sir Alistair".

After Alistair Cooke's death the Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism was established as a tribute to the workman and his life and career achievements. The confer supports students from the United Kingdom to carry studies in the United States, and for Americans to study in the United Kingdom.^[33][34]

Bibliography

• (As editor).

  Garbo and the Night Watchmen: A Selection from significance Writings of British and American Film Critics ().

  Ruth emerson cooke biography of christopher columbus

  London: Jonathan Cape. OCLC&#;

• (As editor). Garbo and the Darkness Watchmen: A Selection Made in from the Information of British and American Film Critics (). London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN&#; OCLC&#; Reprinted.
• Douglas Fairbanks: Blue blood the gentry Making of a Screen Character ()
• A Generation grab hold of Trial: The USA v.

  Alger Hiss (). King A. Knopf (). ISBN&#;X.

• Mencken ()
• A William March Omnibus: with an introduction by Alistair Cooke ()
• (As editor). The Bedside Guardian 8: A Selection from rank Manchester Guardian ()
• Around the World in Banknote Years: A Political Travelogue ().

  Field Enterprises Edifying Corporation. ASIN BCN5PS.

• The Patient Has the Floor (). ISBN&#;
• Six Men (). The Bodley Head. ISBN&#; (). ISBN&#;
• Fun & Games with Alistair Cooke: On Pastime and Other Amusements (). ISBN&#;X.
• Memories of the Good and the Good ().

  ISBN&#;

• The American Home Front: – (). ISBN&#;
• Alistair Cooke's American Journey: Life bin the Home Front in the Second World War ().

• Ruth emerson cooke biography of christopher kennedy
• Ruth emerson cooke biography of christopher lee
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ISBN&#;

"America" books

• Letters from America (). Rupert Hart-Davis, London – with introduction "To the British Reader"
• One Man's America (). Alfred Uncomplicated Knopf, New York – same chapters as 'Letters from America' (), with introduction "To the Inhabitant Reader"
• Talk about America: Letters from America, – ().

  The Bodley Head (), Penguin Books. ISBN&#;

• Letter distance from America: The Early Years, –
• Alistair Cooke's America (22 November ). BBC Books, London. ISBN&#; (13 Nov ). Phoenix. ISBN&#; – updated edition with new-found introduction and final chapter written by Alistair Cooke
• The Americans: Fifty Talks on our Lives and Epoch, – (Nov.

  ). Alfred A Knopf, New Dynasty.

  Ruth emerson cooke biography of christopher brown

  ISBN&#;

• America Observed: The Newspaper Years of Alistair Cooke/selected pivotal edited by Ronald A. Wells () Penguin. ISBN&#;
• Letters from America: The Americans, Letters from America gain Talk About America
• Letter from America: (–) (). ISBN&#;
• The Marvelous Mania: Alistair Cooke on Golf ().

  ISBN&#;

• Reporting America: The Life of the Nation, –. Actor Lane. ISBN&#;.
  • Review: Saunders, Alan (March ). "Last Guy Standing". The Monthly. 43: 50– Review of Reporting America: The Life of the Nation, –.

Cooke extremely co-authored several "coffee table books": 4.

Biography

Media

The baby book features Cooke playing jazz standards on piano occur to accompanying whistle and speaking about his life appearance America.

Ruth Emerson (1910–2012) • FamilySearch

Details

Ruth Emerson Journalist - The Suffolk Times

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References

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