For nearly sixty years, Alistair Cooke reported on American life. Now, to coincide with what would be his 100th birthday, the Overlook Press is proud to publish Reporting America, which collects Cooke's coverage of the most momentous half-century in American history.


Compiling his most striking and significant essays and "letters," Reporting America is one of the more important and compelling accounts of modern America to be put to paper. A naturalized U.S. citizen originally hailing from Britain, Cooke had his finger on the pulse of America from World War II up to modern times. His beloved broadcast, Letter from America, saw 11 presidents in office, four wars, and an incredible shift in American culture and life. He adored the U.S. as only a naturalized citizen could, and his reports were incisive and often moving. Reading Cooke's reporting gives new life to the crucial moments in our history and culture he sought to capture and share with the world.


Reporting America also features an introduction by Cooke's daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, in which she provides an intimate memoir of her father, as well as commentary throughout the book on her father's legacy. Kittredge's memories offer a rare insight into the personal life of the man who many knew only as the voice of Letter from America and the host of CBS's Omnibus and PBS's Masterpiece Theatre.