Alistair Cooke (1908-2004)

Sad to read this morning of the death of Alistair Cooke (see this earlier post).

Cooke's was a long and fascinating life. A keen observer of America, he reported on 12 presidents:

… his favorite was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also respected Lyndon B. Johnson ("An appalling man, but a great president").

His political outlook was probably best reflected by Stevenson. In "Six Men," he compared him to "that estimable order of Americans — Henry Clay, Robert E. Lee, Norman Thomas, Learned Hand, perhaps Wendell Willkie — who left a lasting impression by the energy of their idealism but who were never quite strong enough or ruthless enough, in the pit of the political jungle, to turn goodness and mercy into law or policy." He wrote, "Adlai Stevenson remains the liveliest reminder of our time that there are admirable reasons for failing to be president."

I remembered hearing that Cooke, as a young newspaperman, had worked with H.L. Mencken. But who knew that Cooke was, among many other things, a talented pianist who recorded a jazz album for Columbia Records? Or that he cowrote a screenplay with Charlie Chaplin?