Editing Letter from America (section)

==History==
''Letter from America'' had its origin in ''London Letter'', a 15-minute talk for American listeners on life in Britain that Cooke recorded during the 1930s while working as London correspondent for [[NBC]]. ''London Letter'' came to an end when Cooke emigrated to America in 1937, but it was not long before he suggested to the [[BBC]] the idea of continuing the idea in reverse. A prototype, ''Mainly About Manhattan'', was broadcast intermittently from October 1938, but the idea was shelved with the outbreak of [[World War II]] in 1939.

The first ''American Letter'' was broadcast on 24 March 1946, initially confirmed for only 13 installments, after Cooke had given a one-off talk under that title in the series ''Sunday Newsletter'' on 25 November 1945. The change of title to ''Letter from America'' came on 30 September 1949. The series lasted for 2,869 broadcasts over nearly 58 years and gathered an enormous audience, being broadcast not only in Britain and in many other [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries, but throughout the world by the [[BBC World Service]].

On 2 March 2004, at the age of 95, following advice from his doctors, Cooke announced his retirement from ''Letter from America''; he died less than a month later, on 30 March 2004, at his home in [[New York City]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3581465.stm|title=Radio legend Cooke dies aged 95|publisher=[[BBC News]]|date=30 March 2004|accessdate=1 November 2012}}</ref> Five years later, BBC Radio 4 premiered ''[[Americana (radio series)|Americana]]'', touted as the successor to ''Letter from America'',<ref name="teleg">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/5171676/BBC-finds-replacement-for-Letter-from-America.html|title=BBC finds replacement for ''Letter from America''|work=[[Daily Telegraph]]|date=18 April 2009|accessdate=1 November 2012}}</ref> however it lasted less than three years, ending in the autumn of 2011.