The Americans

Letters from America 1969–1979

Alistair Cooke, Alistair Cooke

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781504051248
• eBook ISBN: 9781497682795
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Literature

"Reading [Cooke] is like spending an evening with him: you may have heard it all before, but never told with such grace and sparkle." — The New York Times Book Review
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."
That virtuosity is displayed to great effect in this essential collection of Cooke's letters, covering a momentous decade in American history.
Always entertaining, provocative, and enlightening, the master broadcaster reports on an extraordinarily diverse range of topics, from Vietnam, Watergate, and the constitutional definition of free speech to the jogging craze and the pleasures of a family Christmas in Vermont. He eulogizes Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, pays an affectionate and moving tribute to Duke Ellington, and treats readers to a night at the opera with Jimmy Carter.
Alistair Cooke was one of the twentieth century's most influential reporters and, according to Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist James Reston, the "best story-teller in America." This captivating collection includes some of Cooke's most memorable insights into American history and culture.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• A Note to the Reader
• Telling One Country About Another (2 March 1969)
• Making a Home of a House (26 January 1969)
• Pegler (29 June 1969)
• Liable to Get Your Head Broke (7 September 1969)
• ‘Eternal Vigilance’ – By Whom? (19 October 1969)
• Massacre: An Act of War (30 November 1969)
• La Fayette Si, Pompidou No! (1 March 1970)
• Now Here is the Nightly News (7 June 1970)
• Final Health Warning (9 January 1971)
• Judgement Day’s A-Comin’ (13 February 1971)
• The Last of the Romanoffs (11 September 1971)
• The Acheson Plan (16 October 1971)
• A ‘Frontal Attack’ on Cancer (10 February 1972)
• The Charm of China (26 February 1972)
• Angela Davis v. the Establishment (1 April 1972)
• Watergate: Act One (16 September 1972)
• Justice Holmes and the Doffed Bikini (7 October 1972)
• Give Thanks, For What? (25 November 1972)
• A Reactionary at Six P.M. (10 February 1973)
• Watergate: Act Two (12 May 1973)
• Intermission: The Agnew Wake (19 October 1973)
• Watergate: Act Three (9 November 1973)
• The Duke (31 May 1974)
• Earl Warren (12 July 1974)
• Watergate: Act Four and Epilogue (7 August 1974 and 6 May 1977)
• Workers, Arise! Shout ‘Fore!’ (27 December 1974)
• The Benefits of Clergy (4 April 1975)
• The End of the Affair (11 April 1975)
• The President Goes Up to the Mountain (13 August 1975)
• Pacific Overtures (16 January 1976)
• Haight-Ashbury Drying Out (16 April 1976)
• I’m All Right, Jack (21 May 1976)
• No Cabinet Officers Need Apply (24 December 1976)
• Christmas in Vermont (31 December 1976)
• The Obscenity Business (18 February 1977)
• The No–Food Plan for Longevity (20 May 1977)
• The Money Game (1 July 1977)
• Mr Olmsted’s Park (8 July 1977)
• The Retiring Kind (9 September 1977)
• Two for the Road (23 December 1977)
• A Picture on the Wall (13 January 1978)
• The Spy that Came Down in the Cold (10 February 1978)
• A ‘Proper’ Wedding (5 May 1978)
• Please Die Before Noon (19 May 1978)
• The Hawk and the Gorilla (2 June 1978)
• A Letter from Long Island (18 August 1978)
• The Letter from Long Island (4 August 1970)
• The Presidential Ear (8 December 1978)
• A Piece of Paper (20 April 1979)
• In the Meantime (6 May 1979)
• About the Author
• Copyright Page