Alistair Cooke

Alistair Cooke 1908-2004, Anglo-American journalist, b. Salford, England, as Alfred Cooke; grad. Cambridge, 1930, where he officially adopted the name Alistair. Cooke became famous in Britain for interpreting American life and culture to a British audience and in America, as the epitome of the elegantly urbane English gentleman, for hosting several popular television programs. He did postgraduate studies at Yale and Harvard (1932-34) and in summer traveled throughout the country. Returning to England (1934), he worked in radio as a British Broadcasting Corp. film critic and the National Broadcasting Co.'s London correspondent. Back (1937) in the United States as a BBC commentator and a writer for the London Times, he settled in New York City and became (1941) an American citizen.

As a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian (1945-73), Cooke also became known for his long-running weekly BBC broadcast, Letter from America (1946-2004). His U.S. reputation and visibility soared when he hosted commercial television's pioneering cultural magazine Omnibus (1952-61), the BBC's historical series America (1972-73), and public television's Masterpiece Theater (1971-1992). His numerous books include biographies, adaptations of his Letters pieces, Generation on Trial: U.S.A. v. Alger Hiss (1950), the best seller Alistair Cooke's America (1973; adapted from the series), and America Observed (1988).

Bibliography: See his The American Home Front, 1941-1942 (2006); biography by N. Clarke (2000).

Cooke, [Alfred] Alistair (1908–2004), British commentator on the U.S., after graduation from Cambridge and a Commonwealth Fellowship at Yale and Harvard, began his career of writing on American affairs, notably for The Manchester Guardian (1948–72). He early took American citizenship and his books on American subjects include Douglas Fairbanks (1940); A Generation on Trial (1950), about the Alger Hiss case; One Man's America (1952); Christmas Eve (1952); A Commencement Address (1954); Talk About America (1968), selections from his BBC broadcasts; Alistair Cooke's America (1973), based on a television series; and The Patient Has the Floor (1986), a collection of speeches.