Letters from America, 1946–1951

Alistair Cooke

03/2015 · Open Road Media

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“[Cooke is] one of the most gifted and urbane essayists of the century, a supreme master.” —The Spectator

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.”

Letters from America: 1946–1951 contains highlights from the first five years of Alistair Cooke’s legendary BBC radio program, years when listeners were eager to put the horrors of World War II behind them.

Cooke’s lively and illuminating dispatches from New York perfectly capture the spirit of the times. From the significance of Labor Day to reflections on the changing seasons to  the heroic Long Island duck that saved two people from drowning, little escapes the broadcaster’s sharp reportorial eye and affable wit. This collection includes Cooke’s historical tour of Washington, DC, and his thoughts on why New York is such a singular city, and covers more serious topics such as the Soviet threat and the anxieties of the atomic age. Always captivating, Cooke treats the reader to profiles of Joe Louis and Will Rogers and reflections on Damon Runyon’s America, and concludes with a “Letter to an Intending Immigrant.”

Letters from America: 1946–1951, the first volume of Cooke’s iconic broadcasts, offers a captivating journey through culture, history, and politics and is a classic of twentieth-century journalism.

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Alistair Cooke, KBE (1908–2004), was a legendary British American journalist, television host, and radio broadcaster. He was born in Lancashire, England, and after graduating from the University of Cambridge, was hired as a journalist for the BBC. He rose to prominence for his London Letter reports, broadcast on NBC Radio in America during the 1930s. Cooke immigrated to the United States in 1937. In 1946, he began a tradition that would last nearly six decades—his Letter from America radio appearances on the BBC. Cooke was also beloved as the host of PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre for twenty-one years. He wrote many books, both collections of his Letters from America and other projects. After his death, the Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism was established to support students from the United Kingdom seeking to study in the United States, and vice versa.