The Alistair Cooke Collection Volume One - Letters from America Talk About America and The Americans

Alistair Cooke

Sinossi

Three volumes of BBC broadcasts about the US from the New York Times–bestselling author, host of Masterpiece Theater, and “international treasure” (Booklist). In addition to his most visible presence as the host of PBS’s Masterpiece Theater for over two decades, British-born Alistair Cooke entertained and informed millions of listeners around the globe with his weekly BBC radio program, Letters from America, for over half a century. An outstanding observer of the American scene, he became one of the world’s best-loved broadcasters. The three works in this collection gather together his most memorable insights into American history and culture. “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). Letters from America: Beginning with his first letter in 1946, a powerful description of American GIs returning home, and ending with his last broadcast in February 2004, reflecting on the presidential campaign, this comprehensive collection displays Cooke’s “virtuosity approaching genius in talking about America in human terms” (Lord Hill of Luton, chairman of the BBC). Highlights include an eyewitness account of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, a moving evocation of 9/11, personal reflections on presidents, and warm remembrances of celebrity friends and cultural icons. “In this tightly edited collection . . . Cooke captures the expanding soul of a nation and people.” —Publishers Weekly Talk About America: Personally selected by Cooke, these dispatches cover a tumultuous time in American history, including the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. Along with cogent commentary, Cooke offers characteristically incisive portraits of political and cultural figures such as John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert Frost, H. L. Mencken, Charles Lindbergh, and John Glenn. “There is great political penetration here, and there are flashes on every page of wit, humanity, and wisdom.” —The New York Times The Americans: Always entertaining, provocative, and enlightening, the “best storyteller in America” 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 (James Reston). In this New York Times bestseller, Cooke 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. “One of the most gifted and urbane essayists of the century.” —The Spectator

Disponibile da: 29/05/2018.

Lunghezza di stampa: 955 pagine.

Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

To Combat Rights Abuses

PBS NewsHour

Spencer Michels reports on a non-profit company that uses high-tech tools to document brutality and human rights abuses around the globe.

Mostra libro

Fervent Freedom Fighters -...

Daniel Cosculluela

This anthology brings to light the richness of the pamphleteer tradition in France, between the 16th and 20th centuries. Though satirists and pamphleteers have emerged out of various political backgrounds down through the centuries, what they have in common is irreverence, courage and insubordination to all forms of power. Among them: Blanqui, Bloy, Desmoulins, Libertad, Proudhon, Rivarol, Séverine Vallès and Zo d'Axa.
At a time when freedom of expression is increasingly questioned, Daniel Cosculluela wanted to resurrect the fighting spirit of those who acted and wrote, often at the risk of their lives. Many of these fighters for freedom of speech and thought had to flee their countries to avoid prison or assassination. 
The author wanted to engage in a dialogue with those who live on through our thoughts, dreams and revolts. His choices are personal, but the writers selected have all played a major role in the movement of ideas which inspire, consciously or not, the commitment and the choises of millions of men and women today.

Mostra libro

British Short Story The - Volume...

James S Pyke-Nott, GK...

These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves. Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language.

Here our ambitions are only of the literary kind. These shores have mustered many masters of literature. So this anthology’s boundaries includes only those authors who were born in the British Isles - which as a geographical definition is the UK mainland and the island of Ireland - and wrote in a familiar form of English.

Whilst Daniel Defoe is the normal starting point we begin a little earlier with Aphra Behn, an equally colourful character as well as an astonishing playwright and poet. And this is how we begin to differentiate our offering; both in scope, in breadth and in depth. These islands have raised and nurtured female authors of the highest order and rank and more often than not they have been sidelined or ignored in favour of that other gender which usually gets the plaudits and the royalties.

Way back when it was almost immoral that a woman should write. A few pages of verse might be tolerated but anything else brought ridicule and shame. That seems unfathomable now but centuries ago women really were chattel, with marriage being, as the Victorian author Charlotte Smith boldly stated ‘legal prostitution’. Some of course did find a way through - Jane Austen, the Brontes and Virginia Woolf but for many others only by changing their names to that of men was it possible to get their book to publication and into a readers hands. Here we include George Eliot and other examples.

We add further depth with many stories by authors who were famed and fawned over in their day. Some wrote only a hidden gem or two before succumbing to poverty and death. There was no second career as a game show guest, reality TV contestant or youtuber. They remain almost forgotten outposts of talent who never prospered despite devoted hours of pen and brain.

Keeping to a chronological order helps us to highlight how authors through the ages played around with characters and narrative to achieve distinctive results across many scenarios, many styles and many genres. The short story became a sort of literary laboratory, an early disruptor, of how to present and how to appeal to a growing audience as a reflection of social and societal changes. Was this bound to happen or did a growing population that could read begin to influence rather than just accept?

Moving through the centuries we gather a groundswell of authors as we hit the Victorian Age - an age of physical mass communication albeit only on an actual printed page. An audience was offered a multitude of forms: novels (both whole and in serialised form) essays, short stories, poems all in weekly, monthly and quarterly form. Many of these periodicals were founded or edited by literary behemoths from Dickens and Thackeray through to Jerome K Jerome and, even some female editors including Ethel Colburn Mayne, Alice Meynell and Ella D’Arcy.

Now authors began to offer a wider, more diverse choice from social activism and justice – and injustice to cutting stories of manners and principles. From many forms of comedy to mental meltdowns, from science fiction to unrequited heartache. If you can imagine it an author probably wrote it.

At the end of the 19th Century bestseller lists and then prizes, such as the Nobel and Pulitzer, helped focus an audience’s attention to a books literary merit and sales worth. Previously coffeehouses, Imperial trade, unscrupulous overseas printers ignoring copyright restrictions, publishers with their book lists as an appendix and the gossip and interchange of polite society had been the main avenues to secure sales and profits.

Mostra libro

The Travels of Reverend Ólafur...

Ólafur Egilsson

A seventeenth-century minister tells his story of abduction by pirates, and a solo journey from Algiers to Copenhagen, in this remarkable historical text. In summer 1627, Barbary corsairs raided Iceland, killing dozens and abducting almost four hundred people to sell into slavery in Algiers. Among those taken was Lutheran minister Olafur Egilsson. Reverend Olafur—born in the same year as William Shakespeare and Galileo Galilei—wrote The Travels to chronicle his experiences both as a captive and as a traveler across Europe as he journeyed alone from Algiers to Copenhagen in an attempt to raise funds to ransom the Icelandic captives that remained behind. He was a keen observer, and the narrative is filled with a wealth of detail―social, political, economic, religious―about both the Maghreb and Europe. It is also a moving story on the human level: We witness a man enduring great personal tragedy and struggling to reconcile such calamity with his understanding of God. The Travels is the first-ever English translation of the Icelandic text. Until now, the corsair raid on Iceland has remained largely unknown in the English-speaking world. To give a clearer sense of the extraordinary events connected with that raid, this edition of The Travels includes not only Reverend Olafur’s first-person narrative but also a collection of contemporary letters describing both the events of the raid itself and the conditions under which the enslaved Icelanders lived. Also included are appendices containing background information on the cities of Algiers and Salé in the seventeenth century, on Iceland in the seventeenth century, on the manuscripts accessed for the translation, and on the book’s early modern European context.

Mostra libro

Bare Knuckle Boxing - The Truth...

Stu Armstrong

"Bare Knuckle Boxing - The Truth, The Blood & The Tears" by Stu Armstrong is a raw and unfiltered look into the gritty world of bare-knuckle boxing, a sport that has exploded in popularity in recent years. Armstrong, having worked directly within the sport, offers readers an insider's view of its controversies, including dirty tricks and hidden secrets that have long remained out of public view. 
Bare-knuckle boxing, often considered the purest form of pugilism, strips away the gloves and the formalities of traditional boxing, leaving behind an intense and primal combat experience. Armstrong aims to lift the veil on the sport's inner workings, revealing both the brutal reality and the passion that fuels its fighters. 
This book is poised to challenge perceptions and present the sport in a light that is both brutally honest and potentially shocking. If you're ready for the raw truth behind the blood and tears of bare-knuckle boxing, this is the book that delivers.

Mostra libro

What a Girl Wants - A (True)...

Roxy Bourdillon

I am 13 years old and these are my secrets.1. I have a crush on Jet from ITV gameshow Gladiators. So strong! So pretty! 2. I still play with Barbie dolls. It’s mostly making them scissor. Or snog. Or lie on top of each other with feeling.3. I just kissed my best friend. Spoiler alert: she’s a girl.From the suburbs of Leeds to the streets of Sydney, from the queer clubs of London to a quiet life by the sea, through love, family, friendship and heartache, join Roxy Bourdillon on a journey to work out exactly who she is.What a Girl Wants is the perfect read for anyone who’s searched for their place in the world, for anyone who’s ever been catcalled, anyone who's despaired about their body, fallen in love, had their heart broken and found friends who can put it back together.From overcoming shame and finding your tribe, to surviving the dating scene and learning to really express yourself, this is a book about joy, empowerment and freedom.It's a laugh-out-loud treat of a read for fans of Dolly Alderton's Everything I Know About Love and Caitlin Moran's How to Be a Woman - but with a glorious queer twist.

Mostra libro