Memories of the Great & the Good

Memories of the Great & the Good
by Alistair Cooke
Open Road Media (March 3, 2015), 288 pages
originally published in 1999
Kindle edition $9.99, Amazon hardcover 19.95
Purchased during an Early Bird Books sale for $2.99

Many of us knew Alistair Cooke as the avuncular British host of Masterpiece Theater for so many years, but he did a great deal more than that. He broadcast his long-running radio program, Letter from America, back to the United Kingdom. He was also a prolific chronicler of individuals, history, politics, and life in the United States.

This volume is a collection of profiles that he wrote about a variety of individuals, ranging from Eleanor Roosevelt to Erma Bombeck to the golfer Bobby Jones. The essays were written across several decades. Cooke has an engaging writing style and often seems to understand the United States better than Americans themselves. These are essays well worth reading.