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Letter From America Collection by Alistair Cooke

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Letter From America Collection

by Alistair Cooke

Narrator Alistair Cooke

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Length 13 hours 1 minute

Language English

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Summary
About the author
About the narrator

For over half a century, Alistair Cooke entertained millions of listeners across the globe with his weekly BBC radio programme 'Letter from America'. An outstanding observer of the American scene, he became one of the world's best-loved broadcasters and had the distinction of presenting the longest running one-man show in radio history.

Following the sad death of Alistair Cooke after 58 years in broadcasting, this impressive collection features all three volumes of Letters from America - The Early Years: 1946-1968, The Middle Years: The 1970s and The Final Years: 1982-2003. The political and social landmarks of the last 50 years are reported on and examined in Cooke's uniquely wise style. Also included is Alistair Cooke at the BBC, a selection of archive recordings, including radio and television interviews, in a fascinating in-depth look at the career of the veteran journalist.

Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Biography & Memoir History Nonfiction

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.