Six Men
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Product Description
Product Description
During his broadcasting career Alistair Cooke met and knew some of the twentieth century's most fascinating and legendary figures, in journalism, politics, public life, sport and film. This is his highly personal and revealing account of six remarkable men who crossed Cooke's path during his lifetime and who, each in their own way, made a lasting impression on him.
Here are candid portraits of the lovable yet unreliable Charlie Chaplin, who, when asked to be Cooke's best man, mysteriously vanished on the day; the complex and private man behind Humphrey Bogart's tough guy image; and the charming yet childlike 'golden boy' Edward VIII. Cooke also recalls his friend and mentor, the flawed contrarian and satirist H.L. Mencken, the larger-than-life liberal politician Adlai Stevenson and the heroic social reformer Bertrand Russell. Each superbly realized portrait gives us an insight into a golden age of 'great men', and is a masterpiece of observation, warmth and humour.
About the Author
Alistair 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 Guardian’s Senior Correspondent in New York for twenty-five years and the host of groundbreaking cultural programmes on American television and of the BBC series America. He was, however, best known both at home and abroad for his weekly BBC broadcast Letter from America, which reported on fifty-eight 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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
Charlie Chaplin, Edward VIII, H.L. Mencken, Humphrey Bogart, Adlai Stevenson, Bertrand Russell. The men have something in common: "all made a deep impression on their century, and their tracks are very visible in our time". Each also eventually became a misfit, which is sad.
The book fascinates, for Cooke knew them all - sometimes in ways that greatly surprise (Chaplin was due to be best man at his wedding but failed to turn up; the Duchess of Windsor lent Cooke a record of Ethel Merman singing "You're the tops".)
Each study contains illuminating revelations. Chaplin forever worried about his fame ("I don't trust it, I still feel it'll never last"). After decades of being hounded over alleged immorality and Communist sympathies, he became little better than a semi senile doll.
Edward VIII proved "at his best only when the going was good... one of the least enlightened of British monarchs". Cooke was caught up in the drama of the abdication, at the height of the crisis despatching 400,000 words in ten days. Chillingly there is the renewed claim that Hitler, after victory, planned to restore Edward as a puppet king.
Master of words H.L. Mencken (depression his Waterloo, Roosevelt his Wellington) ironically was rendered by a stroke unable to recognize them. Bogart, "an original quite unlike any other human being I have ever known", hated the superficial gloss of life. Cooke writes with warmth of Adlai Stevenson - "a good man in a bad trade", badly let down by Presidents Truman and Kennedy. Philosopher Bertrand Russell (surprisingly small) was a "towering miscontent", randy for most of his 98 years - a whodunnit addict, able to read four at a sitting, each in fifteen minutes flat.
Cooke pays tribute to Russell's ability with a well constructed sentence. We can only admire Cooke's similar awesome craftsmanship, used here so skilfully to help shed more light.
A thoroughly entertaining, thought provoking read.
The book fascinates, for Cooke knew them all - sometimes in ways that greatly surprise (Chaplin was due to be best man at his wedding but failed to turn up; the Duchess of Windsor lent Cooke a record of Ethel Merman singing "You're the tops".)
Each study contains illuminating revelations. Chaplin forever worried about his fame ("I don't trust it, I still feel it'll never last"). After decades of being hounded over alleged immorality and Communist sympathies, he became little better than a semi senile doll.
Edward VIII proved "at his best only when the going was good... one of the least enlightened of British monarchs". Cooke was caught up in the drama of the abdication, at the height of the crisis despatching 400,000 words in ten days. Chillingly there is the renewed claim that Hitler, after victory, planned to restore Edward as a puppet king.
Master of words H.L. Mencken (depression his Waterloo, Roosevelt his Wellington) ironically was rendered by a stroke unable to recognize them. Bogart, "an original quite unlike any other human being I have ever known", hated the superficial gloss of life. Cooke writes with warmth of Adlai Stevenson - "a good man in a bad trade", badly let down by Presidents Truman and Kennedy. Philosopher Bertrand Russell (surprisingly small) was a "towering miscontent", randy for most of his 98 years - a whodunnit addict, able to read four at a sitting, each in fifteen minutes flat.
Cooke pays tribute to Russell's ability with a well constructed sentence. We can only admire Cooke's similar awesome craftsmanship, used here so skilfully to help shed more light.
A thoroughly entertaining, thought provoking read.
Format:Paperback
As is usual with any of Alistair Cooke's writing, that unmistakable transatlantic voice can be heard behind the words as if the author himself was reading his work to an audience of one - you. The generations who would remember the men of whom he has written are fast coming to an end, but there is enough in each of these insightful vignettes to whet the appetite of a true biography-phile of whatever era. I would say that Cooke enjoyed the company of each of his subjects, but that did not put him beyond objective honesty. The saddest, most poignant and ultimately most honest comment of all was that of his summing up of Edward VIII - "The most damning epitaph you can compose about Edward - as a prince, as a king, as a man - is one that all comfortable people should cower from deserving:he was at his best only when the going was good"
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
An all class act
9 May 2004
Format:Hardcover
Many of us who appreciate the work of truly great non-fiction writers were deeply saddened by the recent passing of Alistair Cooke.
Although best remembered for his long running radio commentary "A Letter from America" and his various television shows of earlier years, it makes for a pleasant change to go back and rediscover some of Mr Cooke's more substantial literary efforts.
A graduate in English literature from Cambridge University and a print journalist of considerable experience, Cooke managed to perfect a difficult balancing act. Throughout his long and prestigious career he steadfastly adhered to the highest professional and intellectual standards yet still managed to enjoy enviable success within the mass media. In many ways he raised the bar in his field by proving that there was, indeed, a solid market for quality work if it was cleverly presented in an entertaining and accessible style.
In this book the veteran newspaper man draws upon his impressive array of observational and descriptive skills to create a striking collection of penetrating celebrity profiles. Cooke wrote with the deft, light hand of a popular scribe but also with the probing incisiveness of a psychology professor. At all times he examined the inner workings of his subjects with an almost clinical thoroughness and a commendable sense of fairness. When it came to creating word pictures, the man was an old master.
Alistair Cooke was a consummate journalist, an all class act and a credit to his chosen calling .
Although best remembered for his long running radio commentary "A Letter from America" and his various television shows of earlier years, it makes for a pleasant change to go back and rediscover some of Mr Cooke's more substantial literary efforts.
A graduate in English literature from Cambridge University and a print journalist of considerable experience, Cooke managed to perfect a difficult balancing act. Throughout his long and prestigious career he steadfastly adhered to the highest professional and intellectual standards yet still managed to enjoy enviable success within the mass media. In many ways he raised the bar in his field by proving that there was, indeed, a solid market for quality work if it was cleverly presented in an entertaining and accessible style.
In this book the veteran newspaper man draws upon his impressive array of observational and descriptive skills to create a striking collection of penetrating celebrity profiles. Cooke wrote with the deft, light hand of a popular scribe but also with the probing incisiveness of a psychology professor. At all times he examined the inner workings of his subjects with an almost clinical thoroughness and a commendable sense of fairness. When it came to creating word pictures, the man was an old master.
Alistair Cooke was a consummate journalist, an all class act and a credit to his chosen calling .
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Interesting biographies by an interpreter of their lives.
2 May 2002
Format:Hardcover
Six famous transatlantic figures: 3 English and 3 American men, all of whom had a legendary meaning in the seventies: Charles Chaplin, H. L. Mencken, Humphrey Bogart, Adlai Stevenson, Bertrand Russell and Edward VIII. I liked his style of writing and he really provided insightful surprises on each of these famous men. An interesting read, if not for the history alone.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Incisive, Beautifully Written
15 Feb 2004
Format:Hardcover
Mr. Cooke is a very bright, amusing, observant man -- who writes so extraordinarily well you'll wish to re-read passage after passage for the pleasure of the sounds. He has chosen six men of diverse background and writes about them with sympathy -- but more importantly for this reader, with an acute sense of their singularity and what made them so. Any reader would only wish the book much longer because it's a beautiful one.
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