ALISTAIR COOKE, 1908 - 2004

Cooke’s parents moved to Blackpool when he was 8. He won an Exhibition to Jesus College, Cambridge in 1927 where he read English. He was awarded a First in Part 1 of his Tripos but failed to meet either his own or others’ expectations in his Finals and had to settle for a respectable Upper Second. He was unable to obtain a research grant which would have enabled him to prolong an academic career in Cambridge, partly because his supervisor and tutor felt that he lacked serious commitment. With hindsight we, and he, might be grateful for this judgment, which at the time he felt was unjustified, because it set him off on an alternative path for which he was much better suited.

As an undergraduate he had devoted more time to pursuits such as journalism and acting than was compatible with attaining a First, and this led to a charge of dilettantism. In his eventual profession as an observer of the social scene his breadth of interest was to prove a great strength rather than a weakness.

Cambridge having no place for him to continue his studies, he managed to obtain a Harkness Fellowship in 1932 which he took up, first, at Yale and then at Harvard. By 1937 he was committed to the United States. He had an American wife and had applied for US citizenship. He did not become a US citizen until 1941 because of the time required to fulfil the requirements and the backlog of applications. He was a bit defensive about the timing which might have suggested that he was deserting Britain in its hour of need but it is clear that his decision was made much earlier.

Cooke earned a precarious living after 1934 writing film reviews and articles but after the War he invented the role for himself for which he became best known: that of an observer and a commentator on the United States to the British. His weekly broadcasts of Letter from America began in 1946 and they still continue.

His other long relationship was with the Guardian newspaper, The Manchester Guardian, as it then was. He became its New York correspondent but with a roving brief which enabled him to comment on a broad range of subject matters. In both his broadcasts and his articles Cooke’s objective was to help the British reader understand what was happening in America and why. He rarely allowed his personal opinions to intrude but retained a remarkable objectivity which has been much admired. His talent was for the descriptive; he avoided the prescriptive.

Growing up in the 1950's I can recall the respectful silence with which my parents regularly listened to Letter from America. We were Manchester Guardian readers, too. I well remember my mother who had zero interest in sport and who despised boxing turning to Alistair Cooke’s description of the fight between Sugar Ray Robinson and Randolph Turpin and reading it with great appreciation. She would give careful attention to anything on any subject which appeared under his byline. Only Neville Cardus could command similar approval.

Cooke was to become as well known in the United States as in Britain. He became the presenter of a popular television programme, Omnibus, which was the first serious attempt on American television to comment on the Arts. Later he became the presenter of Masterpiece Theatre which was a weekly progarmme on Public Television. Masterpiece Theatre showed British drama productions to an American audience and each programme was introduced by Cooke who would explain to the American audience something about the play, about its social or historical significance and/or about its author. Now Cooke was explaining the British to the Americans as he had for so many years explained the Americans to the British.

Another of his monumental achievements was a 13 part history, America, which was the first time the history of the United States from its beginnings to modern times was attempted in a programme made for television.

The programme was widely praised. Its success was such that every public lending library in the United States was provided with copies of the tapes. Cooke was enormously pleased when the great American historian, Samuel Eliot Morison, said the programme was magnificent and of the book version that he would have been proud to have written it himself. It is important that in this as in other ventures Cooke was not just a performer. He was not mouthing what others wrote for him. He did most of the research and wrote all his own material.

Cooke was an authority on jazz and American folk music and an accomplished musician. At Harvard he had studied linguistics and could identify the home region of native born Americans with uncanny accuracy, quite exceptional for one not so born. His own carefully modulated mid-Atlantic tone was cultivated to be acceptable to both his primary audiences.

In his lifetime Cooke has received awards and accolades far too numerous to list. He is widely credited with having made a major contribution to Anglo-American understanding. This has not been incidental. Rather it was his primary purpose. In 1974 he was invited to address the US Congress on the occasion of the celebrations which marked the 200th anniversary of the USA. He was only the third foreign born person to have been so invited. His predecessors were Lafayette and Sir Winston Churchill.

Though money was not a problem for Cooke in the later stages of his career there were periods when it was and he continued to feel financially insecure when most people felt there was no reason to. It is notable that he never appeared in any commercial or endorsed any product despite many lucrative offers. He despised the advertising industry: perhaps a legacy from his Methodist background.

It has been suggested that Cooke was not anxious to acknowledge the town he was brought up in. Maybe there is some truth in that, but on the other hand he has paid public tribute to his former school, particularly to its first Headmaster, Joseph Turral, who was clearly an influential figure in Cooke’s early life.

A major source for this note has been a biography of Cooke written in 1999: Alistair Cooke: The Biography, published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson. I am not certain of its availability in the UK but it is available here (Canada) in paperback

Prefects note:-
Books , tapes and videos featuring :-Alistair Cooke can be purchased here.

For more information visit:- BBC Alistair Cooke Webpages

From Brian Howard

ALISTAIR COOKE KBE

Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey 15 October 2004

Through the good offices of David Wallbanks of the Old Boys Association I was privileged to be present at the Thanksgiving Service for Alistair Cooke at Westminster Abbey, representing Blackpool Grammar School.

During my years at the Grammar School from 1937, Bill Curnow, an early mentor and later great friend, by then Deputy Head and teaching History and Economics to the Sixth Form constantly sang the praises of Alistair Cooke's exploits and achievments. How right he was - as Alistair Cooke continued in the next 60 years to become the Grammar School's most distinguished Old Boy by his 2,500 plus unique Letters from America, his literary output and his acclaimed TV series"America".

The Service in the Abbey was a fine, varied and lively occasion

His son read a lesson, his daughter lead prayers and his granddaughter played the violin solo in the Second Movement of Bach's Concerto in A Minor.

A favourite Grammar School Assembly Hymn" Immortal Invisible" was sung; Gilbert and Sullivan were well represented and his love of Jazz featured by Jacqui Dankworth singing her version of the Gershwin song" Someone to watch over me".

The Service ended appropriately for an American citizen with s stirring rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Repubic.

The Dean of Westminster paid tribute to Alistair Cooke for "his unique and powerful contribution to our understanding of America - a man who in his own generation brought understanding and reconciliation".

Everyone connected with the Grammar School can be proud of its early and lasting influence on Alistair Cooke and be grateful for his lifetime achievments.

Brian Howard

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