| Publication OverviewAlistair 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 BBC's film critic from 1934 to 1937. He then returned to America and became a US citizen in 1941. Cooke was the Guardian's Senior Correspondent in New York for 25 years and the host of groundbreaking cultural programmes on American television and of the BBC series America, which was a huge hit and led to the international bestselling book Alistair Cooke's America. He was, however, best known both at home and abroad for his weekly BBC broadcast Letter from America, which reported on 58 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. He wrote many of his Letters in his New York apartment overlooking Central Park, where he brought up his family and lived with his wife Jane White until his death on 30 March 2004. |
