Early Life
Cooke was born in Salford, Lancashire, England. His father was a lay Methodist preacher and metalsmith by trade; his mother's family were of Irish Protestant origin. Originally named Alfred, he changed his name to Alistair when he was 22. He was educated at Blackpool Grammar School, Blackpool and won a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he gained an honours degree (2:1) in English. He was heavily involved in the arts, was editor of Granta, and set up the Mummers, Cambridge's first mixed sex theatre group, from which he notably rejected a young James Mason, telling him to stick to architecture.
Cooke became engaged to Henrietta Riddle, the daughter of Henry Ainley. While he was attending Yale University and Harvard University on a Commonwealth fund fellowship, she deserted him. He met Ruth Emerson, a great-grandniece of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 1933, and they married on 24 August 1934.
Alistair Cooke divorced Ruth in 1944, and married Jane White Hawkes, a portrait painter and the widow of neurologist A. Whitfield Hawkes, the son of Albert W. Hawkes, on 30 April 1946. Their daughter, Susan, was born on 22 March 1949.
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“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
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