{{infobox journalist | name	Alistair Cooke
birthname	Alfred Alistair Cooke
birth date	November 20, 1908
birth place	Salford, Lancashire, United Kingdom
death date	March 30, 2004
death place	New York City, New York, United States
occupation	Journalist and broadcaster
spouse	(1) Ruth Emerson, (2) Jane White Hawkes
children	John Byrne Cooke (by Ruth Emerson), Susan Byrne Cooke (by Jane White Hawkes)
ethnicity	Anglo-Irish
nationality	British-American
credits	''Letter from America''''Alistair Cooke's America'' }}

Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE (20 November 1908 – 30 March 2004) was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included ''Letter from America'' and ''Alistair Cooke's America'', he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS ''Masterpiece Theater'' from 1971 to 1992. After holding the job for 22 years, and having worked in television for 42 years, Cooke retired in 1992, although he continued to present ''Letter from America'' until shortly before his death. He was the father of author and folk singer John Byrne Cooke.

Early life

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, 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. However whilst 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. Charlie Chaplin had agreed to be Cooke's best man, but he was a no-show at the ceremony. The couple had a son, John, who graduated from Harvard University and shortly thereafter (1966) became the road manager for Big Brother and the Holding Company. After the band's lead singer Janis Joplin started her own band with solo billing, John Cooke remained her road manager. He was her confidant at the time of her death in 1970.

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. The couple remained together until his death.

Media beginnings

Cooke saw a newspaper headline that Oliver Baldwin, the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's son, had been fired by the BBC as film critic. Cooke sent a telegram to the Director of Talks, asking if he would be considered for the post. He was invited for interview and took a Cunard liner back to England, arriving twenty four hours late for his interview. He suggested typing out a film review on the spot, and a few minutes later, he was offered the job. He also sat on a BBC committee headed by George Bernard Shaw for correct pronunciation. The fact that Shaw spoke with a strong Dublin accent caused Cooke some amusement.

Cooke was also London correspondent for NBC. Each week, he recorded a 15-minute talk for American listeners on life in Britain, under the series title of ''London Letter''. In 1936, he intensively reported on the Edward VIII abdication crisis for NBC. He made several talks on the topic each day to listeners in many parts of the United States. He calculated that in ten days he spoke 400,000 words on the subject. During the crisis, he was aided by a twenty-year-old Rhodes Scholar, Walt Rostow, who would become Lyndon B. Johnson's national security advisor.

Move to the United States

In 1937, Cooke moved to the United States, starting what was to become a permanent emigration. He became US citizen and swore the Oath of Allegiance on 1 December 1941, six days before Pearl Harbor was attacked. Shortly after emigrating, Cooke suggested to the BBC the idea of doing the ''London Letter'' in reverse: a 15-minute talk for British listeners on life in America. A prototype, ''Mainly About Manhattan'', was broadcast intermittently from 1938, but the idea was shelved with the outbreak of World War II in 1939. During the war, he broadcast a weekly ''American Commentary'' on the BBC about the war.

During this time, as well, Cooke undertook a journey through the whole United States, recording the lifestyle of ordinary Americans during the war – and their reactions to it. The manuscript did not arouse much interest immediately after the war, but it was discovered a few weeks before his death in 2004 and published as ''The American Home Front: 1941–1942'' in the United States (and as ''Alistair Cooke's American Journey: Life on the Home Front in the Second World War'' in the UK) in 2006. Accompanied by strong reviews, it stands as the only incisive first-hand journal of the American home front ever published, even though the account is confined to the early stages of the war.

The first ''American Letter'' was broadcast on 24 March 1946 (Cooke said this was at the request of Lindsey Wellington, BBC's New York Controller); the series was initially commissoned for only 13 instalments. The series finally came to an end 58 years (2,869 instalments) later, in March 2004. Along the way, it picked up a new name (changing from ''American Letter'' to ''Letter from America'' in 1950) and an enormous audience, being broadcast not only in Britain and in many other Commonwealth countries, but throughout the world by the BBC World Service. The original scripts are held at the BBC and at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center of Boston University.

In 1991, Alistair Cooke received a special BAFTA silver award for his contribution to Anglo-American relations.

The staff reporter

In 1947, Cooke became a foreign correspondent for the ''Manchester Guardian'' newspaper (later ''The Guardian''), for which he wrote until 1972. It was the first time he had been employed as a staff reporter; all his previous work had been freelance. He also served as a foreign correspondent for ''The Times''.

''Omnibus''

In 1952, Cooke became the host of CBS's ''Omnibus'', the first commercial network television series devoted to the arts. It featured appearances by such personalities as Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Gene Kelly, and Leonard Bernstein. Jonathan Winters was the first comic to appear on the show. The series marked Bernstein's first-ever television appearances.

Mid to later years

Cooke took up golf in his mid-fifties, developing a pronounced fascination with the game, despite never attaining an extraordinary level of skill. He was driven by his love of golf to devote many of his ''Letters from America'' to the topic, speaking one of the thrill of learning 'how much more awesome was the world of golf than the world of politics'. Cooke became close friends with many of the leading golfers of the era: Jack Nicklaus, in the introduction to a compilation of Cooke's writing on golf, recounts his many notable achievements, but describes him as 'most of all ... a friend.'

In 1968, he was only yards away from Robert F. Kennedy when he was assassinated, witnessing the events that followed.

In 1971, he became the host of the new ''Masterpiece Theatre'', PBS's showcase of quality British television. He remained its host for 22 years, before retiring from the role in 1992. He achieved his greatest popularity in the U.S. in this role, becoming the subject of many parodies, including "Alistair Cookie" in ''Sesame Street'''s "Monsterpiece Theater" ("Alistair Cookie" was also the name of a clay animated cookie-headed spoof character created by Will Vinton as the host of a video trailer for ''The Little Prince and Friends''); Alistair Quince, from ''The Carol Burnett Show'', introducing the "The Family" sketches, which eventually became ''Mama's Family''; and, arguably, Leonard Pinth-Garnell, in ''Saturday Night Live'''s "Bad Conceptual Theatre".

''America: A Personal History of the United States'' (1972), a 13-part television series about the United States and its history, was first broadcast in both the United Kingdom and the United States in 1973, and was followed by a book of the same title. It was a great success in both countries, and resulted in Cooke's being invited to address the joint Houses of the United States Congress as part of Congress's bicentennial celebrations. After the series' broadcast in Ireland, Cooke won a Jacob's Award, one of the few occasions when this award was made to the maker of an imported programme. Alistair Cooke said that, of all his work, ''America'' was that of which he was most proud; it is the result and expression of his long love of America. Asked once how long it took him to make the series, Cooke replied, "I do not want to be coy, but it took 40 years."

Later the same year, Cooke was awarded an honorary knighthood (KBE) for his "outstanding contribution to Anglo-American mutual understanding." Cooke was reportedly happy to accept because in the words of Thomas Jefferson, it did not involve "the very great vanity of a title." Having relinquished his British citizenship during World War II, he could not be called "Sir Alistair". For more than 50 years, Cooke lived in a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan, New York City, outliving several property owners and all fellow tenants.

Later life and death

On 2 March 2004, at the age of 95, following advice from his doctors, Cooke announced his retirement from ''Letter from America'' – after 58 years, the longest-running speech radio show in the world.

Cooke died at midnight on 30 March 2004, at his home in New York City. He had been ill with heart disease, but died of lung cancer, which had spread to his bones. He was cremated, and his ashes were clandestinely scattered by his family in Central Park.

On 22 December 2005, the ''New York Daily News'' reported that the bones of Cooke and many other people had been surgically removed before cremation by employees of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, New Jersey, a tissue-recovery firm. The thieves sold the bones for use as medical-grade bone grafts. The cancer from which Cooke was suffering had spread to his bones, making them unsuitable for grafts. Reports indicated the people involved in selling the bones altered his death certificate to hide the cause of death and reduce his age from 95 to 85. Michael Mastromarino, a former New Jersey–based oral surgeon, and Lee Cruceta agreed to a deal that resulted in their imprisonment. Mastromarino was sentenced on 27 June 2008, in the New York Supreme Court to 18 to 54 years imprisonment. The entire story of the theft featured in a documentary aimed at educating the public about modern day grave robbery.

The Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism

After Alistair Cooke's death the Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism was established as a tribute to the man and his life and career achievements. The award supports students from the United Kingdom to undertake studies in the US and for Americans to study in the UK. It is offered for a Masters in Journalism or specialist study (e.g. Middle Eastern Studies) leading to a career in journalism.

The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, was created in the aftermath of World War II through the efforts of US Senator J. William Fulbright.

UK recipients of the Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award are listed below:

2009–2010 Harry Allen (University College London), Mary O'Hara (Cambridge University), Rebecca Thomas (Edinburgh University)

2008-2009 Simon Akam (Oxford University) and Dan Walker Smith (Edinburgh University)

2007-2008 Peter Cardwell (Oxford University)

2006-2007 Archie Bland (Cambridge University)

2005-2006 Ewan Jones (Cambridge University)

Bibliography

''Douglas Fairbanks: The Making of a Screen Character'' (1940)

''Mencken'' (1955)

''A William March Omnibus: with an introduction by Alistair Cooke'' (1956)

''Around the World in Fifty Years: A Political Travelogue'' (1966) Field Enterprises Educational Corporation ASIN B0000CN5PS

''A Generation on Trial: The USA v. Alger Hiss'' (1982) ISBN 0-313-23373-X

''The Patient Has the Floor'' (1986) ISBN 1-55504-214-7

''Six Men'' (1977) The Bodley Head ISBN 0-370-30056-4;(1995) ISBN 1-55970-317-2

''Fun & Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements'' (1996) ISBN 1-55970-327-X

''Memories of the Great and the Good'' (2000) ISBN 1-55970-545-0

''The American Home Front: 1941–1942'' (2006) ISBN 0-87113-939-1

''Alistair Cooke's American Journey: Life on the Home Front in the Second World War'' (2006) ISBN 0-7139-9879-2

"America" books

''Letters from America'' (1951) Rupert Hart-Davis, London - with introduction 'To the British Reader'

''One Man's America'' (1952) Alfred A Knopf, New York - same chapters as 'Letters from America' (1951), with introduction 'To the American Reader'

''Talk about America: Letters from America 1951-1968'' (1968) The Bodley Head; (1981) Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-005764-1

''Letter from America: The Early Years 1946–1968''

''Alistair Cooke's America'' (22 Nov 1973) BBC Books, London ISBN 0-56312182-3; (13 Nov 2003) Phoenix ISBN 1-84188229-1 - updated edition with new introduction and final chapter written by Alistair Cooke

''The Americans: Fifty Talks on our Lives and Times 1969-1979'' (Nov 1979) Alfred A Knopf, New York ISBN 0-39450364-3

''America Observed: The Newspaper Years of Alistair Cooke/selected and edited by Ronald A. Wells'' (1988) Penguin ISBN 0-14-011509-9

''Letters from America: The Americans, Letters from America and Talk About America''

''Letter from America: (1946–2004)'' (2004) ISBN 1-4000-4402-2

''The Marvellous Mania: Alistair Cooke on Golf'' (2007) ISBN 978-0-7139-9996-9

Cooke also co-authored several "coffee table" photo books.

Media

''America: A Personal History of the United States'' has been released on DVD, with an additional feature where Cooke talks about his life.

''An Evening With Alistair Cooke at the Piano'', an LP record first released in 1955, later rereleased in 1973 by Columbia Special Products (catalogue number B00110SXCK).

The album features Cooke playing jazz standards on piano with accompanying whistle, and talking about his life in America.

Reviews

Review of ''Reporting America: The Life of the Nation, 1946–2004''.

References

External links

''Letter From America'' – official BBC home page

An interview with Alistair Cooke

What makes him tick by the BBC's Nick Clarke, author of a biography of Alistair Cooke.

''Guardian'' 2004 highlights

BBC News report of Cooke's death

BBC Obituary

''Daily Telegraph'' obituary

''Guardian'' obituary

''Economist'' obituary

Tony Blair gives tribute

Find-A-Grave profile for Alistair Cooke

''Daily News'' bone theft story

Washington Post "In New York, a Grisly Traffic in Body Parts"

''Guardian'' in article ''Emma Brockes Meets Alistair Cook's Daughter'' – ''Letters from my father''

PBS "Masterpiece – The Unseen Alistair Cooke"

Category:1908 births Category:2004 deaths Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Category:Harvard University people Category:American journalists Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists Category:BBC World Service Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:British emigrants to the United States Category:British journalists Category:British radio personalities Category:British radio people Category:Harkness Fellows Category:Jacob's Award winners Category:Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from Salford Category:Deaths from bone cancer Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:People educated at Blackpool Grammar School

cy:Alistair Cooke de:Alistair Cooke es:Alfred Alistair Cooke nl:Alistair Cooke pl:Alistair Cooke fi:Alistair Cooke

playername	Alastair CookMBE
country	England
fullname	Alastair Nathan Cook
nickname	Woody, Cooky, Chef, Golden Boy
living	True
dayofbirth	25
monthofbirth	12
yearofbirth	1984
placeofbirth	Gloucester, Gloucestershire
countryofbirth	England
heightft	6
heightinch	2
batting	Left-hand
bowling	Right-arm off break
role	Opening batsman, England ODI captain
international	true
testdebutdate	1 March
testdebutyear	2006
testdebutagainst	India
lasttestdate	22 August
lasttestyear	2011
lasttestagainst	India
odidebutdate	28 June
odidebutyear	2006
odidebutagainst	Sri Lanka
lastodidate	9 July
lastodiyear	2011
lastodiagainst	Sri Lanka
odishirt	26
club1	Bedfordshire
year1	2002
club2	Essex Cricket Board
year2	2003
club3	Essex
year3	2003–present
clubnumber3	26
club4	MCC
year4	2004–2007
deliveries	balls
columns	4
column1	Test
matches1	72
runs1	5,868
bat avg1	49.72
100s/50s1	19/26
top score1	294
deliveries1	6
wickets1	0
bowl avg1	–
fivefor1	0
tenfor1	0
best bowling1	0/1
catches/stumpings1	64/–
column2	ODI
matches2	31
runs2	1,156
bat avg2	38.53
100s/50s2	2/6
top score2	119
deliveries2	–
wickets2	–
bowl avg2	–
fivefor2	–
tenfor2	–
best bowling2	–
catches/stumpings2	12/–
column3	FC
matches3	156
runs3	12,094
bat avg3	47.42
100s/50s3	35/60
top score3	294
deliveries3	270
wickets3	6
bowl avg3	34.16
fivefor3	0
tenfor3	0
best bowling3	3/13
catches/stumpings3	147/–
column4	LA
matches4	84
runs4	2,935
bat avg4	39.13
100s/50s4	6/16
top score4	125
deliveries4	18
wickets4	0
bowl avg4	–
fivefor4	0
tenfor4	n/a
best bowling4	0/5
catches/stumpings4	35/–
date	22 August
year	2011
source	http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/11728.html cricinfo}}

Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE (born 25 December 1984) is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003. He has played in a variety of England's youth teams from 2000 until his call up to the Test side in 2006.

While touring in the West Indies with the ECB National Academy, Cook was called up to the England national team in India as a last-minute replacement for Marcus Trescothick and debuted with a century. Debuting at 21 years of age, Cook went on to become the youngest Englishman to reach 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 Test runs, making centuries in his first Test matches against India, Pakistan, the West Indies and Bangladesh. He is also the only Englishman to score seven Test centuries before his 23rd birthday.

Despite this prodigious flurry of runs, Cook came under criticism throughout 2008 for a lack of centuries; he replied in 2009 with two centuries, as well as a score of 95 against Australia to help seal England's first victory against them at Lord's since 1934. He took seven catches in the series, including the final wicket, to win the 2009 Ashes series. After deputising as Test captain in 2010, Cook went on to play another pivotal role in retaining the 2010-11 Ashes series, breaking records by scoring the second highest number of runs in a Test series by an Englishman, including his maiden first-class double-hundred and two further hundreds, and batting for over 35 hours during the series.

Cook was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.

Early life and education

Born in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Alastair Cook is one of several players of mixed Anglo-Welsh heritage to play for England; his mother Elizabeth is a teacher from Swansea, while his father Graham worked as a BT engineer as well as being a village cricketer. Cook is a keen musician. By the age of eight he was learning the clarinet and joined St Paul's Cathedral Choir School as a chorister where he boarded under a rigorous schedule of rehearsals, whilst also learning the clarinet. Cook later claimed the amount of focus and concentration required to keep practising while undergoing regular school hours helped with his batting. During his Summer holidays he would play cricket for Maldon Cricket Club, by the age of 11 he was already playing for their adult side on the Third XI. He played sporadically for them over seven years, with an average of 168 in his final year at a club of which he is now an honourary life member.

Cook's musical flair led to him being granted a scholarship to Bedford School when he was 13, also as a boarder. While being educated in Bedford he also learned to play piano and saxophone. However, music was soon eclipsed when the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) came to play against the Bedford XI. The visiting side were a man short and drafted the 14 year old new boy to play against his school; Cook scored a century. Over the next four years he hit 17 centuries and two double-hundreds to total 4,396 runs at an average of 87.90, captaining the cricket team in his final year as well as being president of the music society. He also gained three A-Levels and nine GCSEs in his time there. In his final year at Bedford in 2003 he scored 1,287 runs for the school including two unbeaten double-hundreds, averaging 160.87 to take the school record. After his international success, Cook returned for an Old Boys match at Bedford in 2008, playing for the HM Ultimate XI.

Playing career

County cricket

Debut (2003–2005)

Having already been a member of the Essex Academy since the age of 15, Cook was given his first-class debut for Essex County Cricket Club coming straight out of school at the end of the 2003 season against Nottinghamshire; put in to field he aided the first dismissal with a catch before falling short at 13 runs in his first innings but pushing Essex to a nine wicket victory with 69 not out in the second. Despite relegation being assured to Essex, Cook still battled away with an opening stand of 122 opposite Will Jefferson in the second innings of his second match, against Warwickshire. In the six innings he participated in, he quickly racked up three half centuries at an average of 47.80. Having solidified his place as opener in the county team, he made his maiden first-class century against Leicestershire in May 2004 with 126 opposite Jefferson's 128 for a 265 opening stand, Essex's third highest but failed to secure promotion for the team.

His exploits in his single season gained him enough attention to be brought in as the opening batsmen for the MCC in 2005 season's opener against County Champions Warwickshire. With a century in the first innings and a near attempt at 97 in the second, Cook helped secure victory in a match destined for a draw. The season opener would not be Cook's only highlight for the year, as The Ashes approached Australia were touring the counties and in a two-day match which sadly did not count towards his first-class statistics, Cook scored a double century went on to take the first wicket of Justin Langer with a catch in the drawn match days after being awarded PCA Young Cricketer of the Year. A further highlight of the season saw Cook help Essex to score one of Durham's two defeats of the season, scoring 107 of Essex's 245 before taking his maiden first-class wicket, before taking another two, with his off-spin. Cook played in every first-class match for Essex and also helped them clinch the Totesport League Title for the first time in 20 years. The end of the season saw Cook finish with an average of 48.03 in the County Championship, hitting four centuries.

Essex and England (2006–present)

After his England call up, Cook's appearances at Essex significantly reduced. In the County Championship he appeared in only three matches, making two hundreds and another two fifties in his five innings, topping the season averages with an inflated 141.3. Similarly in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy he appeared only three times and again topped the batting averages, only being out once with a top score of 91 and average of 148. He scored less favourably in his one Twenty20 Cup appearance, scoring only nine runs. In the 2007 season, for Essex alone his first-class average was only 58.8 from three appearances, making two hundreds but countering this with one duck and he made a similar century/duck appearance in the (formerly C&G;) Friends Provident Trophy during his 5 matches averaging 38.4. The back to back Totesport/Pro40 champions saw Cook make only one appearance in that competition, scoring 81 not out, before being relegated. They won Division Two and were promoted the following season, though Cook only provided 11 runs in one innings during the tournament. Despite his international commitments Cook managed to participate in at least one match of each tournament averaging only 36.16 in three County Championship matches and a disappointing 15 in his one Twenty20 match. Given time off the South Africa One-Day series, Cook favoured better in the FP Trophy with 45.3 from 3 matches including contributing the second highest in the final at Lord's to seal the trophy.

The 2009 English season featured an early Test series against the West Indies where, despite being in the Test team, Cook joined Essex in a tour match. He scored 76 not out in the second innings before the match was rained off, stopping Essex pressing for victory. Before the Test series he helped Essex force the follow on against Kent in the County Championship but faltered with his team, scoring only 4 in the second innings to lose by 192 runs. After the Test series, Cook was omitted from the one day side leaving him free to play for Essex. He joined them in their bid to defend their Friends Provident Trophy matching Varun Chopra's 65 in a 124 run partnership against Lancashire to gain a place in the semi-final. He and his team could not recreate that magic for the semi-final, at the same location against the same team three days later, after being caught from a fine running catch by Sajid Mahmood, seeing the team lose by 67 runs. Having been knocked out of the FP Trophy, the team turned to the Twenty20 Cup. Making only his fourth appearance in the tournament since 2005, Cook smashed 80 off 56 balls in a vain effort against Kent that was rained off. While his England partner Bopara shone against Sussex, Cook only scored one but made up for this with a 60 run partnership with Bopara days later to put Essex top of the table. Despite averaging 49 from these four games, Cook felt he was a long way from the international squad. In his last performance before joining with the Ashes squad, Cook scored a 57 ball century, carrying his bat through the innings as they crushed Surrey but without Cook and Bopara, the team were knocked out after two successive losses.

International career

Youth cricket (2000–2006)

Cook had his first taste of international cricket playing the U15 World Cup in 2000. Three years later Cook was called up to the Under 19 England team for their tour of South Africa. After it was decided Samit Patel had enough responsibility batting and bowling, Cook was appointed captain of the team the following year, 2004. His first call of duty was the U19 World Cup in the West Indies where he guided England through the group stages and on past the Super League stage, including an unbeaten century-each partnership with Patel against New Zealand, and continued a 100% win record with 87 over eventual winners Pakistan before falling short in the semi-final against the West Indies. He went on from there to captain them in a U19 Test win over Bangladesh before taking the One-Day series too. His career with the Under 19 team was cut short when Kevin Pietersen was called up to replace Andrew Flintoff in the main team, leaving a spot in England A's tour of Sri Lanka for Cook. After the 2005 domestic season he was part of the intake for the ECB National Academy, but this was interrupted as he flew to Pakistan to cover the squad for Michael Vaughan's knee injury. After not being used in the first XI he travelled back with the Academy to the West Indies in the new year scoring 101 in a two-day match against Antigua before youth cricket came to an abrupt halt for Cook.

Debut year (2006)

Cook was included in the ECB National Academy in the winter of 2005–06. The Academy's tour of the West Indies was cut short on 24 February for Cook who only appeared in the first innings, scoring only 6, before being called up, alongside James Anderson and Owais Shah, to the England team's tour of India to replace captain Michael Vaughan who was suffering from a knee injury and opener Marcus Trescothick who was suffering from stress. Unlike Shah and Anderson, Cook was welcomed straight into the England XI and made his Test debut aged 21, days after he had flown in from the West Indies. He made an instant impact, opening with Andrew Strauss and scoring a half century in the first innings before being bowled just before tea on the first day for 60 runs from 160 balls being the second top scorer after 134 from Paul Collingwood. The second innings would prove to cement him in cricket history as he went on to score 104 not out before England declared, making him the sixteenth Englishman to score a century on his debut Test and an even more exclusive list of five to score 100 and 50 in their first Test. His hundred was also the 3,000th century in Test cricket. Despite being known for a patient style of play, an impending declaration forced Cook to play quickly to bring up the century; regardless, the match was drawn. After a mediocre outing in the losing second Test, scoring 17 and 2, he missed the Third Test due to a stomach illness and was omitted from the one-day series.

Returning home, Cook was again selected for the first XI during Sri Lanka's tour. For his debut match at Lord's, Cook was shuffled down to third to make way for the returning Trescothick. However, he still walked to the crease alongside his teammate as Strauss fell at the stroke of lunch. Cook and Trescothick put on 127 in their partnership as Trescothick made a century while Cook later stumbled just before at 89; there was no second innings as England forced the follow-on but were one wicket away from victory with Cook being targeted among others for two significant dropped catches. Cook's first taste of victory came in the second Test, guiding the team past the target of 78 in the second innings with an unbeaten 34 alongside Andrew Flintoff furthering the reputation of his calm, meticulous style of play against the dangerous spin of Muttiah Muralitharan who took 4–29. Although not initially selected for the one-day series, Cook made his limited overs debut in the fourth match scoring 39 from 38 balls in a bright spot of an otherwise dour England performance hampered by injuries.

At the start of the following series against Pakistan, Cook recorded his second Test century, gaining him a spot on the boards at Lord's alongside Ian Bell and Collingwood, though he only managed four in the second innings. He and Bell both recorded back to back centuries by the following Test at Old Trafford as well as Cook scoring his then-career best 127 in an innings defeat over Pakistan. In what now seemed a pattern, Cook's century came up while partnering with Collingwood as with his previous two. In the controversial forfeited Test, sometimes called Ovalgate, Cook contributed a first innings top score of 40 and second best 83 before Pakistan refused to return to the field. This score secured Cook's tally of runs, 403, as the second highest scorer for England and third overall in the series. Once again Cook was overlooked in the one day series. At the end of the season he was again awarded the Young Player of the Year award as well as being shortlisted for ICC Emerging Player of the Year.

As well as the one day series against Pakistan, Cook was overlooked for the 2006 Champions Trophy squad. However, he was named for the 2006–07 Ashes series touring party and when Trescothick pulled out once again due to stress, Cook re-earned a spot as an opener for the foreseeable future. In the disastrous 5 Test whitewash, Cook failed to impress in the first two Tests, but during a two day warm-up he retired with a century and afterwards remained adamant that he and England would make a turn around in the series. With England desperately chasing 577 runs, or a draw to not lose the Ashes, Cook stayed at the crease for over six hours, lasting almost all of the fourth day to earn his maiden Ashes century (119) before being caught behind off Glenn McGrath just shy of three overs before the close of play. This was his fourth Test century before turning 22, no England player had scored more than two by the same age. With only three other batsmen scoring double figures, England lost the Test and the Ashes and despite only having an average of 27.6 runs, Cook scored one of only three English centuries on the tour and also on 28 December 2006 in Melbourne, Cook scored his thousandth Test run, the second cricketer to do this in their maiden year, after Mark Taylor.

West Indies, India and Sri Lanka (2007)

After being omitted for the Twenty20 International against Australia and the 2007 World Cup, Cook found himself once again in favour for the home series against West Indies. Starting at Lord's, Cook found himself among four centurions in the opening innings with Collingwood opposite him once again, being one of only five Englishmen to hit as many centuries in 15 Tests and recorded another half century in the following innings to win his first Man of The Match award. After another half century in the second Test, Cook recorded another half century/century combination in the two innings at Old Trafford, his first innings sixty equating to the team's win margin. Cook was selected for his first Twenty20 International against the West Indies, in a losing effort where he scored 15 runs from 16 balls. This was followed by a disappointing one-day series for Cook, and England, who averaged 22 in 3 matches.

The following home series against India saw Cook continue his fine Test form despite England not winning a Test. He was the third highest scoring Englishman with an average of 37. During the first day of the second Test at Trent Bridge, Cook became the youngest English player to rack up 1,500 Test runs eclipsing the record held by David Gower. Cook played in six of the seven ensuing one-day matches, scoring his maiden ODI century in the first match alongside Ian Bell's 126 not out guiding England to a 104 win victory that propped up England's first one-day series victory since 2005. After two ducks, Cook was dropped in the final, decisive match.

After being omitted from the World Twenty20 Cook rejoined England in Sri Lanka making an outstanding contribution in both forms of the game. Starting with another ODI series victory, Cook battled with a stomach virus to top score 47 in a losing match and went on to be the second highest scoring batsmen in the series behind Chamara Silva with 155. Cook also picked up his first ODI Man of The Match award in the fourth game. After an unsuccessful first Test, Cook went on to be the top scoring Test batsmen for England too, scoring two half centuries in the second Test and 118 in the third match, at an average of 46. Up until this tour, Cook had held a strange record of having more Test centuries than half centuries but this century marked his last until March 2009 and Cook came under increasing criticism for his lack of ability to convert fifties to hundreds at the top of the order, yet maintained an average in the low forties.

Decline in form (2008–2009)

England's tour of the antipodes continued as England toured New Zealand and Cook made a great start in the warm up matches, making a half century followed by an unbeaten 138 the following day in limited overs matches. His style was still considered too slow for the following two Twenty20 Internationals and he failed to continue his form in the first ODI where he fell for 11 as part of an England collapse. The second match saw a similar collapse by England where Cook's 52 was the only real contribution until he was run out by fellow Essexian Ravi Bopara. The fourth one day match saw Cook and Phil Mustard prop up the innings with an opening stand of 158 before both being dismissed in successive balls, leading to a tied match. Although normally known for his slow but focussed repose with the bat, the first Test against New Zealand gave Cook a chance making three sharp catches in the first innings and mirroring his efforts with three even more spectacular catches in the second innings, the first two off Ryan Sidebottom who then went on to make a hat-trick with a final LBW, the match itself saw England collapse in the second innings for 110 with Cook being the only other player besides Ian Bell to make it into double figures. Incidentally, Cook's other catch in the second innings was also off Sidebottom to dismiss New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, a feat the pair reproduced in the second innings of the second Test and again in the first innings of the third Test. His batting meanwhile began its long road of decline scoring no more than sixty in the two Tests and falling for only two runs in the final match, though in the second Test he did secure another English record being the youngest Englishman at just over 23 years, to score 2,000 Test runs – again eclipsing Gower; two days later he recorded his first Test six after 2047 runs, including 233 boundaries, after an accidental top edge and ruined his chances of beating Vijay Manjrekar's 2,308 record.

Back home in England Cook failed to reproduce his legacy of Lord's centuries. Scoring 61 in the only England innings of the first Test which was his only score over fifty from the four innings in England's successful series. His poor form in the long format led to him being omitted for the Twenty20 series and all but the final one-day match. With a year to go before the 2009 Ashes it was imperative for Cook to cement his position as opener in the home series against South Africa. Again, at Lord's, Cook made his way comfortably to a half-century before being dismissed for 60. A high team score, together with a benevolent wicket, saw the fifth day bring Cook's first Test over as a bowler: he conceded just one run. Cook fell in one innings of each Test between fifty and a hundred, amassing the considerable average of 47 for the series.

Once again Cook found himself omitted from the Twenty20 and one-day team both for the home series against South Africa as well as the majority of the away series in India, where a string of poor England performances saw him called up for the fifth and ultimately the final match after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. When the Tests arrived, Cook continued to notch a half-century in one innings of each match, but was outshone by opening partner Strauss's centuries.

After India, England went to the West Indies under the new captaincy of Andrew Strauss after Pietersen's brief tenure ended in controversy. Cook was shown still to have the selectors' confidence despite his lack of centuries when he was given the unofficial vice-captaincy before the tour began. The title gave him a boost: he went on to score two fifties in the first warm-up match, retiring out in the second innings but contrasted that with a duck in the next tour match. Similarly, in the First Test he scored four and another duck. After the third Test was abandoned due to the poor quality of the surface, Cook was again beleaguered by his perennial problem: he scored two half centuries against opening partner Strauss's 169. He seemed to have put it behind him in the first innings of the next Test, however, as he and Strauss put on a record opening stand of 229. Strauss was bowled first for 169 as Cook reached the nineties but fell shortly thereafter for 94. After two days' batting on a benign pitch, the West Indies declared on 749 for nine in response to England's 600 for six. Put back in with one day to spare, Strauss fell for 33, but, after 38 innings' and fifteen months' waiting, Cook finally arrived at his eighth Test century, and went on to pass his highest score with an unbeaten 139 before play ended in a draw. During this innings, Cook also became the youngest Englishman to pass 3,000 Test runs.

England returned home, only to face the West Indies once more. The Second Test took the sides to the Riverside in Durham where, on a benign surface, Cook battled through the first day. After Strauss fell in the morning session, Cook began a partnership with Ravi Bopara, who had recently been promoted to third in the batting order. Over the first day, the two navigated a slow partnership, both strike rates remaining under 55, but, once Cook reached his ninth Test century, Bopara matched it with his own, culminating in a 213-run partnership at Bopara's fall in the closing overs of the day; Cook ended unbeaten on 126. After the second day of play was completely washed out, Cook recorded his first Test 150 and subsequently his then highest score of 160.

Successive Ashes wins (2009–2011)

Omitted from the World Twenty20 competition, Cook returned to Essex for two moderate county matches but impressive Twenty20 games. Despite being the only Englishman to score a century, or even more than 50, in the first innings of England's warm up match against Warwickshire, in the first Ashes Test at Cardiff, Cook was the lowest scoring recognised batsman, scoring 10 and 6 – caught in the gully in the first innings, and trapped LBW by Mitchell Johnson in the second. Cook bounced back in the second Test at Lord's, batting through to the afternoon session, as he and his captain Andrew Strauss (who scored 161) set the record for the highest opening English partnership at Lord's with 196, Cook initially scored faster than Strauss but fell short of another Lord's century, trapped again by Johnson for 95. This partnership, along with Strauss' anchoring throughout the innings, led England to a total of 425 and enabled them to gain a 210-run first-innings lead, aided by three catches from Cook off James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Batting quickly in the second innings to force victory, Cook scored 32 from 54 balls before again falling LBW but providing enough for England to cement their first victory over Australia at Lord's since 1934 and second since 1896. After this high, the series took a severe downturn for Cook as his only appearance in the third Test was a duck. With no second innings to redeem himself, pressure began to mount on Cook for the fourth Test at Headingley Stadium where he anchored himself through half the team before being dismissed half way through the first innings for only 30, a score which would only be topped by wicket-keeper Matt Prior as England collapsed to Australia's seam attack, bowled out for 102. Though the team batted better in the second innings Cook again was the fifth man out for another 30 as England succumbed to an innings defeat, with Australia levelling the series needing only to draw at the Oval to retain the Ashes. During the fortnight break Cook was among a quintet of players released into the County Championship to increase their form alongside. In the first-class match against Middlesex both he and Bopara failed in the first innings, with scores of 4 and 1, but Cook top scored in the second innings with 64 to push Essex towards victory. Of the five released, Cook was among three picked for the final and decisive Oval Test and didn't start well being dismissed with only 12 runs on the board, ten of them his. However, in the field Cook was part of Australia's first innings collapse, taking two catches off Graeme Swann to dismiss the top scoring opener Simon Katich and the penultimate wicket of Stuart Clark. Working with a 172 run lead on the second evening, Strauss and Cook's steady partnership was ended prematurely with Cook dismissed for 9 in his final innings of the series. Despite this Cook ended the series on something of a high in his fielding position at short leg, taking a catch off Steve Harmison's second wicket in two balls for the penultimate wicket and then taking the winning catch of a leading edge from the defiant Michael Hussey for 121 off Swann to seal the Ashes victory.

Cook made his return to international Twenty20 cricket during the tour of South Africa in 2009–10. After scoring 11 runs in the first match, Cook was handed the captaincy after Paul Collingwood picked up an injury prior to the second match but led them to an 84 run loss after posting only 26. In the second Test he scored a patient 118 after being saved by a third umpire referral at 64. This, along with a century from Ian Bell, gave England their only Test win of the drawn series with an innings margin. Despite a meagre performance in the rest of the series, it was quickly announced that England's 2010 tour against Bangladesh would see Strauss rested, with Cook taking on the captaincy role in the Test and One-Day teams as, what national selector Geoff Miller, "an audition for future engagements".

In his first Test as captain in Chittagong, Cook led the team to a win, despite a strong rearguard from Bangladesh, with the top score in both innings. Scoring a century in the first, in the second innings he accumulated 4,000 Test which coincided with teammate Collingwood achieving the same. At 25 years, 79 days Cook became the youngest Englishman to reach this amount and the second youngest worldwide after Indian veteran Sachin Tendulkar who was 24 years, 224 days old. In the second Test, Cook scored the winning runs in a nine wicket win, having scored another century. By virtue of being captain, Cook returned to England's ODI squad for the first time since 2008 and led the team as an opening batsmen to a three win whitewash with respectable scores.

After a successful tour of Bangladesh, they came to tour England with Strauss returning as captain and Cook being omitted once more for the short format. Later in the Summer Pakistan toured England also. It took until the fifth Test of the summer for Cook to pass 50, scoring 110 in a losing cause against Pakistan. Before then, he had come in for much scrutiny, especially regarding his technique outside off-stump, and many considered his place to be under-threat. His timely century secured his place for the last Test, although he only scored 10 in an innings win by England, further putting his place into question heading into the Winter tour of Australia. Although there were still concerns about Cook's form and technique ahead of the 2010-11 Ashes series, Cook answered his critics in the best way possible. Following a century in one of the warm-up games, Cook opened his series account with 67 as England won the toss and batted at The Gabba in Brisbane. After surrendering a first-innings deficit of 221, Cook fought back with fellow-opener Strauss and Jonathan Trott. Strauss scored 110 as England scored 188 for the first wicket. With this partnership, Cook and Strauss became England's highest scoring opening partners across their four years together, beating an eighty year-old record set by Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe; albeit taking 44 more innings to do so. Cook was joined by Trott and they scored an unbeaten partnership of 329; Cook recorded his first double-century in first class cricket, finishing on 235 not out, and Trott scored 135 not out before England declared on 517–1. Cook's 235* overtook Donald Bradman's record score at the ground and several other records were set in that innings.

In the second Test at Adelaide, Cook scored another century, his 15th, which saw him match Bradman in scoring 15 centuries before his 26th birthday (they are joint-second behind Sachin Tendulkar). Cook broke Wally Hammond's record of runs scored without being out and Nasser Hussain's record of most minutes at the crease without being out, before being caught behind off an inside edge for 148 after over 1,000 minutes of being at the crease.

Cook, along with his teammates in a losing effort, performed poorly in the third Test but contributed to an innings victory in the fourth, becoming the series' leading run scorer after scoring 82. In the fifth and final Test, Cook twice survived being given out by debutant Michael Beer, the first from a no ball and the second (at 99 runs) after the third umpire confirmed the onfield decision that the ball had not carried. Eventually caught by Michael Hussey, his score of 189 saw him reach 5,000 Test runs in his career while in the series alone he amounted over 36 hours at the crease, a world record in a five Test series and an English record even including six Test series, as well as scoring 766 runs to become England's second highest series scorer behind 906 by Wally Hammond 80 years previous. At the end of the final Test, Cook was presented with both the Man of the Match and Man of the Series awards.

ODI Captaincy (2011)

Following England's quarter-final departure from the 2011 World Cup, Andrew Strauss resigned the ODI captaincy and Cook was named his successor, despite not having featured in an ODI since leading the side in Bangladesh. In addition to Cook's promotion, seam bowler Stuart Broad was named captain of the Twenty20 side and England went into the home series with Sri Lanka with different captains for each format of the game.

Cook's first game as full time Captain against Sri Lanka at the Oval saw England victorious by 110 runs. England went on to win the series 3-2, with Cook top scoring for England in the series with 298 runs in five matches. This performance also lead to an ODI player of the series award.

Outside cricket

As well as his successful career in the realms of cricket, Cook also uses his talents in other fields. As well as being a columnist in ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''Metro'', he used his erstwhile musical flair with the saxophone to contribute to Freefonix, a CBBC animated series with music-based adventures. As well as this, Cook has donated his time to various charities including taking part in The Great City Race for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and modelled nude alongside fellow cricketers James Anderson and Stuart Broad to help raise awareness for testicular cancer on behalf of the Everyman Campaign.

Achievements

Test cricket

Performance against each opponent

As of 23 August 2011:

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 100%" align="center" width:"100%" ! width="150"| Opponent !! width="50"| Matches !! width="50"| Innings !! width="50"|Not out !! width="50"| Runs !! width="50"| High Score !! width="40"| 100 !! width="40"| 50 !! width="50"| Average |- | || 15 || 26 || 1 || 1264 || 235* || 4 || 3 || 50.56 |- | || 4 || 7 || 1 || 401 || 173 || 2 || 0 || 66.83 |- | || 11 || 20 || 1 || 875 || 294 || 2 || 4 || 46.05 |- | || 6 || 10 || 0 || 308 || 61 || 0 || 2 || 30.80 |- | || 8 || 14 || 0 || 570 || 127 || 3 || 1 || 40.71 |- | || 8 || 14 || 0 || 616 || 118 || 1 || 6 || 44.00 |- | || 9 || 15 || 1 || 843 || 133 || 3 || 5 || 45.30 |- | || 11 || 19 || 3 || 991 || 160 || 4 || 5 || 61.93 |- |- class="sortbottom" | '''TOTAL || 72 || 125 || 7 || 5,868 || 294 || 19 || 26 || 49.72 |}

Centuries

{|class="sortable wikitable" style="font-size: 100%" align="center" width:"100%" |- ! width="60"| #!! width="50"|Runs !! width="50"|Match !! width="180"|Opponent !! width="200"|Location !! width="250"|Venue !! width="50"|Year |- | [1] || 104 || 1 || || Nagpur, India || Vidarbha || 2006 |- | [2] || 105 || 6 || || London, England || Lord's || 2006 |- | [3] || 127 || 7 || || Greater Manchester, England || Old Trafford || 2006 |- | [4] || 116 || 12 || || Perth, Australia || WACA Ground || 2006 |- | [5] || 105 || 15 || || London, England || Lord's || 2007 |- | [6] || 106 || 17 || || Greater Manchester, England || Old Trafford || 2007 |- | [7] || 118 || 24 || || Galle, Sri Lanka || Galle International Stadium || 2007 |- | [8] || 139* || 40 || || Bridgetown, West Indies || Kensington Oval || 2009 |- | [9] || 160 || 43 || || Chester-le-Street, England || Riverside || 2009 |- | [10] || 118 || 50 || || Durban, South Africa || Sahara Stadium Kingsmead || 2009 |- | [11] || 173 || 53 || || Chittagong, Bangladesh || Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium || 2010 |- | [12] || 109* || 54 || || Dhaka, Bangladesh || Shere Bangla National Stadium || 2010 |- | [13]|| 110 || 59 || || London, England || The Oval || 2010 |- | [14]|| 235* || 61 || || Brisbane, Australia || The Gabba || 2010 |- | [15] || 148 || 62 || || Adelaide, Australia || Adelaide Oval || 2010 |- | [16] || 189 || 65 || || Sydney, Australia || Sydney Cricket Ground || 2011 |- | [17] || 133 || 66 || || Cardiff, Wales (England home venue) || SWALEC Stadium || 2011 |- | [18] || 106 || 67 || || London, England || Lord's || 2011 |- | [19] || 294 || 71 || || Birmingham, England || Edgbaston || 2011 |}

Man of the match awards

Date	Opponent	Ground	Record/Scorecards
17–21 May 2007			Batting: 105 and 65Caught: 1
25–29 November 2010		The Gabba, Brisbane	Batting: 67 and 235*Caught: 2
3–7 January 2011		Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	Batting: 189
10–13 August 2011			Batting: 294Caught: 1

Records

March 2006: Sixteenth Englishman to score a century on his debut, fifth to combine it with a half century. December 2006: Only Englishman to score 4 centuries before his 22nd birthday. May 2007: Only Englishman (second worldwide) to score 1,000 runs in maiden year. July 2007: Youngest Englishman to score 1,500 runs. December 2007: Only Englishman to score 7 centuries before his 23rd birthday. March 2008: Youngest Englishman to score 2,000 runs. February 2009: England's record opening stand against West Indies (229 with Andrew Strauss). March 2009: Youngest Englishman to 3,000 runs. July 2009: England's record opening stand at Lord's against Australia (196 with Andrew Strauss). March 2010: Youngest Englishman (second worldwide) to 4,000 runs. November 2010: England's record partnership in Australia, world record partnership and innings at The Gabba (329 with Jonathan Trott, 235 not out). December 2010: England's record unbeaten score and time spent at the crease (383 runs in 1,058 minutes).

January 2011: Youngest Englishman (second worldwide) to 5,000 runs.

January 2011: World record time spent batting in a five Test series, second most series runs by an Englishman (2,171 minutes [36 hours], 766 runs).

One Day International cricket

Centuries

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 100%" align="center" width:"100%" !colspan=7|One-day International Centuries of Alastair Cook |- ! width="40"| !! width="50"|Runs !! width="50"|Match !! width="100"|Opposed !! width="150"|City/Country !! width="200"|Venue !! width="50"|Year |- | [1] || 102 || 6 || || Hampshire, England || Rose Bowl || 2007 |- | [2] || 119 || 29 || || London, England || Lord's || 2011 |- |}

Man of the match awards

Date	Opponent	Ground	Record/Scorecards
10 October 2007		R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	Batting: 80
6 July 2011		Trent Bridge, Nottingham	Batting: 95*

Awards

2003

NBC Denis Compton Award

2004

NBC Denis Compton Award

2005

NBC Denis Compton Award

CWC Young Cricketer of the Year

PCA Young Cricketer of the Year

2006

NBC Denis Compton Award

PCA Young Cricketer of the Year

2011

Freedom of the City of London

Member of the Order of the British Empire

References

External links

Category:English cricketers Category:England Test cricketers Category:Cricketers who made a century on Test debut Category:England One Day International cricketers Category:England Twenty20 International cricketers Category:Essex cricketers Category:1984 births Category:Living people Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:Old Bedfordians Category:Twenty20 Cup centurions Category:English cricket captains Category:Bedfordshire cricketers Category:Essex Cricket Board cricketers Category:MCC cricketers Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire

mr:अ‍ॅलास्टेर कूक ta:அலஸ்டைர் குக்

background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Lester William Polsfuss
born	June 09, 1915Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States
died	August 12, 2009White Plains, New York, United States
genre	Jazz, country, blues, rock and roll
occupation	Innovator, Inventor, Musician, Songwriter
instrument	Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica
years active	1928–2009
website	lespaulonline.com
notable instruments	Gibson Les Paul }}

Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009)—known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.

His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.

Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed.

Biography

Early life

Les Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss outside Milwaukee, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to George and Evelyn (1888–1989) (née Stutz) Polsfus. His family was of German ancestry. Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's Valentin Blatz Brewing Company and the makers of the Stutz automobile. His parents divorced when he was a child. The Prussia family name was first simplified by his mother to Polfuss before he took his stage name of Les Paul. He also used the nicknames Red Hot Red and Rhubarb Red.

While living in Wisconsin, he first became interested in music at age eight when he began playing the harmonica. After an attempt at learning the banjo, he began to play the guitar. It was during this time that he invented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play the harmonica hands-free while accompanying himself on the guitar. Paul's device is still manufactured using his basic design. By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music singer, guitarist and harmonica player. While playing at the Waukesha area drive-ins and roadhouses, Paul began his first experiment with sound. Wanting to make himself heard by more people at the local venues, he wired a phonograph needle to a radio speaker, using that to amplify his acoustic guitar. At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis, Missouri, on KMOX.

Early career

Paul migrated to Chicago in 1934, where he continued to perform on radio. His first two records were released in 1936. One was credited to "Rhubarb Red", Paul's hillbilly ''alter ego'', and the other was as an accompanist for blues-artist Georgia White. It was during this time that he began playing jazz and adopted his stage name.

Paul's jazz-guitar style was strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt, whom he greatly admired. Following World War II, Paul sought out and befriended Reinhardt. After Reinhardt's death in 1953, Paul furnished his headstone. One of Paul's prize possessions was a Selmer Maccaferri acoustic guitar given to him by Reinhardt's widow.

Paul formed a trio in 1937 with singer/rhythm guitarist Jim Atkins (older half-brother of guitarist Chet Atkins) and bassist/percussionist Ernie "Darius" Newton. They left Chicago for New York in 1939, landing a featured spot with ''Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians'' radio show. Chet Atkins later wrote that his brother, home on a family visit, presented the younger Atkins with an expensive Gibson archtop guitar that had been given to Jim Atkins by Les Paul. Chet recalled that it was the first professional-quality instrument he ever owned.

Paul was dissatisfied with acoustic-electric guitars and began experimenting at his apartment in Queens, NY with a few designs of his own. Famously, he created several versions of "The Log", which was nothing more than a length of common 4x4 lumber with a bridge, guitar neck and pickup attached. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings long after the development of his eponymous Gibson model.

While experimenting in his apartment in 1940, Paul nearly succumbed to electrocution. During two years of recuperation, he relocated to Hollywood, supporting himself by producing radio music and forming a new trio. He was drafted into the US Army shortly after the beginning of World War II, where he served in the Armed Forces Network, backing such artists as Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, and performing in his own right. As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore, Paul played with Nat King Cole and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles, California, on July 2, 1944. The recording, still available as Jazz at the Philharmonic- the first concert- shows Paul at the top of his game, both in his solid four to the bar comping in the style of Freddie Green and for the originality of his solo lines. Paul's solo on 'Blues' is an astonishing tour de force and represents a memorable contest between himself and Nat 'King' Cole. Much later in his career, Paul declared that he had been the victor and that this had been conceded by Cole. His solo on Body and Soul is a fine demonstration both of his admiration for and emulation of the playing of Django Reinhardt, as well as his development of some very original lines.

Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 number-one hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time." In addition to backing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters and other artists, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own on the Decca label in the late 1940s.

In January 1948, Paul shattered his right arm and elbow in a near-fatal automobile accident on an icy Route 66 just west of Davenport, Oklahoma. Mary Ford was driving the Buick convertible, which rolled several times down a creekbed; they were on their way back from Wisconsin to Los Angeles after performing at the opening of a restaurant owned by Paul's father. Doctors at Oklahoma City's Wesley Presbyterian Hospital told him that they could not rebuild his elbow so that he would regain movement; his arm would remain permanently in whatever position they placed it in. Their other option was amputation. Paul instructed surgeons, brought in from Los Angeles, to set his arm at an angle—just under 90 degrees—that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. It took him nearly a year and a half to recover.

Guitar builder

Paul's innovative guitar, "The Log", built after-hours in the Epiphone guitar factory in 1940, a 4" × 4" chunk of pine with strings and a pickup, was one of the first solid-body electric guitars. Paul Tutmarc of Audiovox Manufacturing Co. built a solid body electric bass in 1935 and Adolph Rickenbacker had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 1930s and Paul A. Bigsby had built one for Merle Travis in 1948 and Leo Fender also independently created his own in 1949. Although Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid body electric guitar, they showed no interest until Fender began marketing its Esquire which later became known as the Telecaster models.

The arrangement persisted until 1961, when declining sales prompted Gibson to change the design without Paul's knowledge, creating a much thinner, lighter and more aggressive-looking instrument with two cutaway "horns" instead of one. Paul said he first saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music-store window, and disliked it. Although his contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. Others claimed that Paul ended his endorsement contract with Gibson during his divorce to avoid having his wife get his endorsement money. Gibson renamed the guitar "Gibson SG", which stands for "Solid Guitar", and it also became one of the company's best sellers.

The original Gibson Les Paul-guitar design regained popularity when Eric Clapton began playing the instrument a few years later, although he also played an SG and an ES-335. Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson and endorsed the original Gibson Les Paul guitar from that point onwards. His personal Gibson Les Pauls were much modified by him—Paul always used his own self-wound pickups and customized methods of switching between pickups on his guitars. To this day, various models of Gibson Les Paul guitars are used all over the world by both novice and professional guitarists. A less-expensive version of the Gibson Les Paul guitar is also manufactured for Gibson's lower-priced Epiphone brand.

On January 30, 1962, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued Paul a patent, Patent No. 3,018,680, for an "Electrical Music Instrument."

Multitrack-recording innovations

Paul had never been happy with the way his records sounded. During a post-recording session talk with Bing Crosby, the crooner suggested Paul try building his own recording studio so he might be able to get the sound he wanted. At first Paul discounted the idea only to give it a few more minutes thought before deciding Crosby was right. Paul started his own studio in the garage of his home on Hollywood's North Curson Street. The studio drew many other famous vocalists and musicians who wanted the benefit of Paul's expertise. The home and studio are still standing, but both had been moved to Pasadena at some point after Paul no longer owned the home.

In 1948, Les Paul was given one of the first Ampex Model 200A reel-to-reel audio tape recording decks by Crosby and went on to use Ampex's eight track "Sel-Sync" machines for Multitrack recording. Capitol Records released a recording that had begun as an experiment in Paul's garage, entitled "Lover (When You're Near Me)", which featured Paul playing eight different parts on electric guitar, some of them recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the master. ("Brazil", similarly recorded, was the B-side.) This was the first time that Les Paul used multitracking in a recording (Paul had been shopping his multitracking technique, unsuccessfully, since the '30s. Much to his dismay, Sidney Bechet used it in 1941 to play half a dozen instruments on "Sheik of Araby"). These recordings were made not with magnetic tape, but with acetate discs. Paul would record a track onto a disk, then record himself playing another part with the first. He built the multitrack recording with overlaid tracks, rather than parallel ones as he did later. By the time he had a result he was satisfied with, he had discarded some five hundred recording disks.

Paul even built his own disc-cutter assembly, based on automobile parts. He favored the flywheel from a Cadillac for its weight and flatness. Even in these early days, he used the acetate-disk setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs. When he later began using magnetic tape, the major change was that he could take his recording rig on tour with him, even making episodes for his fifteen-minute radio show in his hotel room. He later worked with Ross Snyder in the design of the first eight-track recording deck (built for him by Ampex for his home studio.)

Electronics engineer Jack Mullin had been assigned to a U.S. Army Signal Corps unit stationed in France during World War II. On a mission in Germany near the end of the war, he acquired and later shipped home a German Magnetophon (tape recorder) and fifty reels of I.G. Farben plastic recording tape. Back in the U.S., Mullin rebuilt and developed the machine with the intention of selling it to the film industry, and held a series of demonstrations which quickly became the talk of the American audio industry.

Within a short time, Crosby had hired Mullin to record and produce his radio shows and master his studio recordings on tape, and he invested US$50,000 in a Northern California electronics firm, Ampex. With Crosby's backing, Mullin and Ampex created the Ampex Model 200, the world's first commercially produced reel-to-reel audio tape recorder. Crosby gave Les Paul the second Model 200 to be produced. Using this machine, Paul placed an additional playback head, located before the conventional erase/record/playback heads. This allowed Paul to play along with a previously recorded track, both of which were mixed together on to a new track. This was a mono tape recorder with just one track across the entire width of quarter-inch tape; thus, the recording was "destructive" in the sense that the original recording was permanently replaced with the new, mixed recording.

Paul's re-invention of the Ampex 200 inspired Ampex to develop two-track and three-track recorders, which allowed him to record as many tracks on one tape without erasing previous takes. These machines were the backbone of professional recording, radio and television studios in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1954, Paul continued to develop this technology by commissioning Ampex to build the first 8-track (multitrack) tape recorder, at his own expense. His design became known as "Sel-Sync" (Selective Synchronization), in which specially modified electronics could either record or play back from the record head, which was not optimized for playback but which had acceptable sound quality for musicians to listen to for the purposes of recording an "overdub" (OD) in sync with the original recording. This is the core technology behind multitrack recording.

Les Paul & Mary Ford

Paul met country-western singer Colleen Summers in 1945. They began working together in 1948, at which time she adopted the stage name Mary Ford. They were married in 1949. The couple's hits included "How High the Moon", "Bye Bye Blues", "Song in Blue", "Don'cha Hear Them Bells", "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise", and "Vaya con Dios". These songs featured Ford harmonizing with herself.

Like Crosby, Paul and Ford used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than from the singer's mouth. This produces a more-intimate, less-reverberant sound than is heard when a singer is or more from the microphone. When implemented using a cardioid-patterned microphone, it emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice due to a cardioid microphone's proximity effect and can give a more relaxed feel because the performer isn't working so hard. The result is a singing style which diverged strongly from unamplified theater-style singing, as might be heard in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.

Radio and television programs

Paul had hosted a fifteen-minute radio program, ''The Les Paul Show'', on NBC radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil" and "Tiger Rag". Over ten of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today.

The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled ''The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show'' (also known as ''Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home'') with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song. Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was widely syndicated during 1954–1955, and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film, therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards up until his death.

During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. Paul has stated that the idea was to explain to the audience how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster.

Later career

In 1965, Paul went into semi-retirement, although he did return to the studio occasionally. He and Ford had divorced in December 1962, as she could no longer cope with the traveling lifestyle their act required of them. Paul's most-recognizable recordings from then through the mid-1970s were an album for London Records/Phase 4 Stereo, ''Les Paul Now'' (1968), on which he updated some of his earlier hits; and, backed by some of Nashville's celebrated studio musicians, a meld of jazz and country improvisation with fellow guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins, ''Chester and Lester'' (1976), for RCA Victor.

By the late 1980s, Paul had returned to active live performance, continuing into his 80s even though he often found it painful to play the guitar because of arthritis in his hands. In 2006, at age 90, he won two Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album ''Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played''. He also performed every Monday night, accompanied by a trio which included guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Paul Nowinksi (and later, Nicki Parrott) and pianist John Colianni, originally at Fat Tuesdays, and later at the Iridium Jazz Club on Broadway in the Times Square area of New York City.

Composer Richard Stein (1909–1992) sued Paul for plagiarism, charging that Paul's "Johnny (Is the Boy for Me)" was taken from Stein's 1937 song "Sanie cu zurgălăi" (Romanian for "Sledge with Bells"). A 2000 cover version of "Johnny" by Belgian musical group Vaya Con Dios that credited Paul prompted another action by the Romanian Musical Performing and Mechanical Rights Society.

For many years Les Paul would sometimes surprise radio hosts Steve King and Johnnie Putman with a call to the "Life After Dark Show" on WGN (AM) in Chicago. These calls would take place in the wee hours of Tuesday Morning following his show at the Iridium Jazz Club. Steve and Johnnie continue to honor Les on Tuesday Mornings at 2:35 AM with their segment "A Little More Les" drawing from around 30 hours of recorded conversations with Les.

Death

On August 12, 2009, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. His family and friends were by his side. Paul is survived by his four children and his companion Arlene Palmer. His attorney told the media Paul had been "in and out of the hospital" because of illness. His last concert took place a few weeks before his death.

Upon learning of his death many artists and popular musicians paid tribute by publicly expressing their sorrow. After learning of Paul's death, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash called him "vibrant and full of positive energy.", while Richie Sambora, lead guitarist of Bon Jovi, referred to him as "revolutionary in the music business". U2 guitarist The Edge said, "His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten."

On August 21, 2009, he was buried near Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin at Prairie Home Cemetery which indicated that his plot would be in an area where visitors can easily view it. Like his funeral in New York on August 19, the burial was private, but earlier in the day a public memorial viewing of the closed casket was held in Milwaukee at Discovery World with 1,500 attendees who were offered free admission to the Les Paul House of Sound exhibit for the day.

Awards and honors

Paul was initiated into the Gamma Delta chapter of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the University of Miami in 1952. He has earned the Presidential award from the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

In 1979, Paul and Ford's 1951 recording of "How High the Moon" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Paul received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1983.

In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." In 1991, the Mix Foundation established an annual award in his name; the Les Paul Award which honors "individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio technology". In 2005, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his development of the solid-body electric guitar. In 2006, Paul was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He was named an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

A one-hour biographical documentary film ''The Wizard of Waukesha'' was shown at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition (FILMEX) March 4–21, 1980, and later on PBS television. A biographical, feature-length documentary titled ''Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90'' made its world première on May 9, 2007, at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul appeared at the event and spoke briefly to the enthusiastic crowd. The film is distributed by Koch Entertainment and was broadcast on PBS on July 11, 2007, as part of its American Masters series and was broadcast on October 17, 2008, on BBC Four as part of its Guitar Night. The première coincided with the final part of a three-part documentary by the BBC broadcast on BBC ONE ''The Story of the Guitar''.

In June 2008, an exhibit showcasing his legacy and featuring items from his personal collection opened at Discovery World in Milwaukee. The exhibit was facilitated by a group of local musicians under the name Partnership for the Arts and Creative Excellence (PACE). Paul played a concert in Milwaukee to coincide with the opening of the exhibit.

Paul's hometown of Waukesha is planning a permanent exhibit to be called "The Les Paul experience."

In July 2005, a 90th-birthday tribute concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. After performances by Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, Jose Feliciano and a number of other contemporary guitarists and vocalists, Paul was presented with a commemorative guitar from the Gibson Guitar Corporation.

On November 15, 2008, he received the American Music Masters award through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a tribute concert at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. Among the many guest performers were Duane Eddy, Eric Carmen, Lonnie Mack, Jennifer Batten, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Dennis Coffey, James Burton, Billy Gibbons, Lenny Kaye, Steve Lukather, Barbara Lynn, Katy Moffatt, Alannah Myles, Richie Sambora, The Ventures and Slash.

In February 2009, only months prior to his death, Les Paul sat down with Scott Vollweiler of Broken Records Magazine, in which would be one of Les Paul's final interviews. His candid answers were direct and emotional. Broken Records Magazine had planned to run that cover feature the following month but due to delays was held until the summer. 3 days before the release, Les Paul died. The issue would be his final cover feature of his storied career.

In August, 2009, Paul was named one of the ten best electric guitar players of all-time by ''Time'' magazine.

On June 9, 2010, which would have been Les Paul's 95th birthday, a tribute concert featuring Jeff Beck, Imelda May, Gary U.S. Bonds and Brian Setzer among others, was held at the Iridium Jazz Club where Les Paul played nearly every week almost to the end of his life. The concert was released on the live album Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul) in 2011.

On June 9–10, 2011 Google celebrated what would have been Paul's 96th birthday with a Google doodle of an interactive guitar.

Personal life

Paul married Virginia Webb in 1938. They had two children, Gene (Lester Jr.), born in 1941 and named after actor-songwriter Gene Lockhart, and Russell (Rusty), born 1944, before divorcing in 1949. Later that year, Paul and Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers) were married. They adopted a girl, Colleen, in 1958 and their son Robert (Bobby) was born the following year. They had also lost a child, who was born prematurely and died only four days old. Les Paul and Mary Ford divorced in 1963.

Paul was the instructor of rock guitarist Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band, to whom Paul gave his first guitar lesson. Miller's father was best man at Paul's 1949 wedding to Mary Ford.

Paul resided for many years in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Discography

Hit singles

Year	Single	Chart positions
		! style="width:35px;"	! style="width:35px;"	! style="width:35px;"	! style="width:35px;"
1945		1
1946		4
		21
	22
	11
		9
	21
	18
	6
		23
	2		7
	1	2
	12
	18
	2
	7
	5
	10
		2
	13
	14
	15
	14
	5
	15
	8
	7
		5
	10
	21
style="text-align:left;"	1			7
	15
	25
	13
		11
	6
	10
	19
		7
	38
	96
		91
	49
	91
1957		35
1958		32
		37
	105

Albums

''Feedback'' (1944)—compilation

''Les Paul Trio'' (1946)—compilation

''Hawaiian Paradise'' (1949)

''The New Sound'' (1950)

''Les Paul's New Sound, Volume 2'' (1951)

''Bye Bye Blues!'' (1952)

''Gallopin' Guitars'' (1952)—compilation

''The Hit Makers!'' (1953)

''Les and Mary'' (1955)

''Time to Dream'' (1957)

''Lover's Luau'' (1959)

''The Hits of Les and Mary'' (1960)—compilation

''Bouquet of Roses'' (1962)

''Warm and Wonderful'' (1962)

''Swingin' South'' (1963)

''Fabulous Les Paul and Mary Ford'' (1965)

''Les Paul Now!'' (1968)

''Guitar Tapestry''

''Lover''

''The Guitar Artistry of Les Paul'' (1971)

''The World is Still Waiting for the Sunrise'' (1974)—compilation

''The Best of Les Paul with Mary Ford'' (1974)—compilation

''Chester and Lester'' (1976)—with Chet Atkins

''Guitar Monsters'' (1977)—with Chet Atkins

''Les Paul and Mary Ford'' (1978)—compilation

''Multi Trackin' '' (1979)

''All-Time Greatest Hits'' (1983)—compilation

''The Very Best of Les Paul with Mary Ford'

''Famille Nombreuse'' (1992)—compilation

''The World Is Waiting'' (1992)—compilation

''The Best of the Capitol Masters: Selections From "The Legend and the Legacy" Box Set'' (1992)—compilation

''All-Time Greatest Hits'' (1992)—compilation

''Their All-Time Greatest Hits'' (1995)—compilation

''Les Paul: The Legend and the Legacy'' (1996; a four-CD box set chronicling his years with Capitol Records)

''16 Most Requested Songs'' (1996)—compilation

''The Complete Decca Trios—Plus (1936–1947)'' (1997)—compilation

''California Melodies'' (2003)

''Les Paul – The Legendary Fred Waring Broadcasts (2004)

''Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played'' (2005)

''Les Paul And Friends: A Tribute To A Legend'' (2008)

Singles

"It's Been a Long, Long Time"—Bing Crosby & The Les Paul Trio (1945), #1 on Billboard Pop singles chart, 1 week, December 8

"Rumors Are Flying"—Andrews Sisters & Les Paul (1946)

"Guitar Boogie" (1947)

"Lover (When You're Near Me)" (1948)

"Brazil" (1948)

"What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1948)

"Nola" (1950)

"Goofus" (1950)

"Little Rock 69 Getaway" (1950/1951)

"Tennessee Waltz"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1950/1951), #1, Cashbox

"Mockingbird Hill"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #1, Cashbox

"How High The Moon"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 9 weeks, April 21 – June 16; #1, Cashbox, 2 weeks; #2, R&B; chart

"I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)

"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #2, Billboard; #3, Cashbox

"Just One More Chance"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)

"Jazz Me Blues" (1951)

"Josephine" (1951)

"Whispering" (1951)

"Jingle Bells" (1951)

"Tiger Rag"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952), #2, Billboard; #8, Cashbox

"I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Carioca" (1952)

"In the Good Old Summertime"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Smoke Rings"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Meet Mister Callaghan" (1952), #5, Billboard

"Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Lady of Spain" (1952)

"My Baby's Coming Home"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Bye Bye Blues"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)

"I'm Sitting On Top Of The World"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)

"Sleep" (Fred Waring's theme song) (1953)

"Vaya Con Dios"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 11 weeks, August 8 – October 3, November 7–14; #1, Cashbox, 5 weeks

"Johnny (Is The Boy For Me)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #15, Billboard; #25, Cashbox

"Don'cha Hear Them Bells"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #13, Billboard; #32, Cashbox

"The Kangaroo" (1953), #25, Billboard; #23, Cashbox

"I Really Don't Want To Know"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)

"I'm A Fool To Care"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)

"Whither Thou Goest"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)

"Mandolino"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954), #19, Billboard

"Song in Blue"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954), #17, Cashbox

"Hummingbird"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)

"Amukiriki (The Lord Willing)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)

"Magic Melody"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)

"Texas Lady"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)

"Moritat" (Theme from "Three Penny Opera") (1956)

"Nuevo Laredo"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)

"Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1957)

"Put A Ring On My Finger"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1958)

"Jura (I Swear I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1961)

"Love Sneakin' Up On You"-Les Paul, Joss Stone & Sting (2005)

Compositions

Les Paul was also a prolific composer. Some of the songs he wrote were "Song in Blue", "Cryin'", "Hip-billy Boogie", "Suspicion", "Mandolino", "Magic Melody", "Don'cha Hear Them Bells", "The Kangaroo", "Big-Eyed Gal", "All I Need is You", "Mammy's Boogie", and "Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues".

See also

Ampex

Discovery World

Gibson Les Paul

Gibson SG

List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

Mary Ford

References

External links

History of Les Paul

Les Paul: Chasing Sound (may require subscription) PBS Documentary on the life of Les Paul, including extended interviews with Paul.

Remembering Les Paul Photos and extended interviews with Les on WGN Chicago's Steve & Johnnie early morning show

Staff writer (August 13, 2009). "Les Paul", obituary at ''The Daily Telegraph'' (Accessed August 24, 2009)

"Les Paul, 'The Wizard of Waukesha'", a biography (undated) at the Wisconsin Historical Society's official website

''Les Paul – Discovery World 2005'' video (requires Adobe Flash) at Discovery World's (museum) official website

''The Les Paul Show'', archive of Paul's NBC radio show at the Internet Archive's official website (includes MP3 files (free) of eleven of their radio shows including their audition show)

lespaulfoundation.org, Les Paul Foundation website (includes Legacy, Foundation & Community websites)

"Les Paul: Legacy of a Guitar Hero" at LIFE

''The Wizard of Waukesha'' (1980) at Allmovie's official website

''Les Paul – 'Miles of Music''', two video interviews of and performances by Paul (5–6 minutes each; requires Adobe Flash) with Bob Miles on ''Miles of Music'' (milesofmusic.tv), a Public-access television cable TV program

CLASSIC TRACKS: Les Paul & Mary Ford 'How High The Moon'

Photo Library from performances at Iridium

Les Paul's final interview

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Mary Ford (July 7, 1924–September 30, 1977), born Iris Colleen Summers, was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits. In 1951 alone they sold six million records.

Early life

Born Iris Summers in El Monte, California, Ford came from a musical family. Her father was a Nazarene minister. Her parents left Missouri, traveling cross-country while singing gospel music and preaching at revival meetings across America. They eventually settled in Southern California, where they were heard over Pasadena's first Christian radio station. Her sisters and brothers were all musicians; Esther, Carol, Eva, Fletcher, jazz organist Bruce and film composer Bob Summers.

In the early 1940s Ford found work as a country music performer with Gene Autry and Jimmy Wakely. She appeared with Wakely in the PRC film ''I'm from Arkansas'' (1944) as a member of the Sunshine Girls trio. In 1945, Autry introduced her to guitarist Les Paul, and the two teamed in 1946. For billing purposes, Paul selected "Mary Ford" from a telephone directory so her name would be almost as short as his. With Paul she became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking. Patti Page and Jane Turzy were other 1950s vocalists who used multi-tracking.

Radio and television

After their marriage on December 29, 1949, the couple appeared together on their NBC radio program, ''The Les Paul Show'' (1949–50), and they had a series of hit records for Capitol Records in the early 1950s, including "Tiger Rag", "Vaya con Dios" (11 weeks at #1), "How High the Moon" (nine weeks at #1), "Bye Bye Blues" and "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise". These songs featured Mary harmonizing with herself, giving the vocals a very novel sound. Paul and Ford also used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than six inches from the singer's mouth. This produces a more intimate, less reverberant sound than when the singer is a foot or more from the microphone. It also emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice. The result was a singing style that diverged strongly from earlier styles, such as vocals in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1952, their innovative sound was satirized by Stan Freberg in his recording of "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" (Capitol, F 2279).

In 1953, the couple began their television series, ''The Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home Show''. In 1955, they gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, and the following year they performed for President Dwight Eisenhower at the White House. In 1961, they appeared on NBC's ''Five Star Jubilee''.

Crescendo

They faded from the charts in the late 1950s, and in 1962, Ford and Paul had a bitter divorce, ending their professional association. Living in Monrovia, California, she married an old friend from high school, Donald Hatfield, and she occasionally performed with her sisters and brother. Bassist Red Wootten, who married Mary's sister Eva Summers, wrote his memories of playing at the Crescendo in Los Angeles with Mary, her sister Carol and her brother, Bob Summers: :My brother, Buddy Wootten, also a bassist, called me from Atlanta to tell me he had just finished working the Fox Theater with Les Paul and Mary Ford. Mary also told me this later. This was while I was holding forth with Woody Herman Orchestra. So, later when I had married her sister (Eva), we worked with her other sister and Bob Summers (her brother) on guitar (sounds like Les Paul too) and Mary's other sister Carol. The gig was the Crescendo club right in the middle of Sunset Strip. A very hip joint!

:Mary used a drummer added to Bob, Mary and myself on electric bass. We did almost all the Les Paul-Mary Ford recordings but with more heavy end on the bass. Les having used guitar on his bass tracks with Mary earlier. On all their recordings (as good as they were), I always missed that deep dark sound... Mary (bless her heart) recorded a few of my compositions (never released), but she did an excellent job as always. Mary divorced Les Paul and later married her old school friend from Monrovia, California, namely Don Hatfield, who owned a large construction company in California. He is still with us, and I see him occasionally. Doing great, but he misses Mary.

:Bob Summers, my brother-in-law, has come into his own over the years too. Bob and I worked a lot on MGM records with the Mike Curb scene, early 1960s. He also was chief arranger for the Mike Curb Congregation, and they recorded some of my material, great too! Also Bob and I worked at Capitol Records for Ken Nelson and Cliffie Stone, passed recently. Too many country artists to even name nearly all of them: Hank Thompson, Wynn Stewart, Rose Maddox and others. Roy Lanham did one of his better albums at the Sound House, Merced, in El Monte (my old stamping grounds) and Mary Ford's home place, 9840 Kale Street. Bruce Summers (who is no longer with us), a piano man whom I played with a few times; a real swinger too.

In Downey, California, Mary's sister Esther Williams played the organ in The Village Restaurant. Esther's daughter, Esther Colleen "Suzee" Williams, recalled one amusing incident at the restaurant in the years after Mary Ford and Les Paul had split up: :There was one singer that came in to sing with my mom. His name was Lou Monica. Well, Mary asked him to learn the song "Donkey Serenade." It's not an easy song to sing. However, Mr. Monica agreed, and after a couple of weeks he said he was ready. As he began to sing, the doors of the club opened wide, and in came Mary, dressed in black with a black gaucho hat, on top of a donkey! Mr. Monica never skipped a beat.

Mary Ford died of complications from diabetes in Arcadia, California at the age of 53. She is buried at Forest Lawn-Covina Hills in Covina, California. Although her year of birth has been variously reported (1924, 1925, 1928), the year 1924 is engraved on her tombstone.

Documentary film

Along with interviews, performance footage of the couple is featured in the musical documentary ''Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90'', directed by John Paulson (''Johnny Mathis Live'', ''An Evening with Chita Rivera''). Distributed by Koch Entertainment, ''Chasing Sound'' premiered May 9, 2007 at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, followed by the television premiere July 11, 2007 on PBS as part of its ''American Masters'' series.

Discography

Hit singles

"Vaya con Dios"

"Tennessee Waltz"

"Mockin' Bird Hill"

"How High the Moon"

"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise"

"Whispering"

"My Baby's Coming Home"

"Lady of Spain"

"Bye Bye Blues"

"I'm Sitting on Top of the World"

Albums

''Hawaiian Paradise''

''The Hit Makers!''

''The New Sound''

''Les Paul's New Sound with Mary Ford, Vol. 2'' - Capitol Records SM-286 (originally released 1951), A Capitol Monophonic Re-issue

::A01 In The Good Old Summer Time [2:06] ::A02 I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)[2:45] ::A03 Three Little Words [1:53] ::A04 The Lonesome Road [2:50] ::A05 Carioca [2:20] ::B01 I Can't Give You Anything But Love [1:54] ::B02 Just One More Chance [1:50] ::B03 Don'Cha Hear Them Bells [1:55] ::B04 The Moon Of Manakoora [2:45] ::B05 Chicken Reel [2:05]

''Bye Bye Blues!''

''Les and Mary''

''Time to Dream''

''Lover's Luau''

''Warm and Wonderful''

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Category:1924 births Category:1977 deaths Category:American guitarists Category:American singers Category:Challenge Records artists Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:People from Arcadia, California

cy:Mary Ford de:Mary Ford es:Mary Ford fr:Mary Ford pt:Mary Ford ru:Мэри Форд sv:Mary Ford

name	Dag Hammarskjöld
nationality	Swedish
order	2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations
term start	10 April 1953
term end	18 September 1961
predecessor	Trygve Lie
successor	U Thant
birth date	July 29, 1905
birth place	Jönköping, Sweden
death date	September 18, 1961
death place	Ndola, Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
religion	Lutheran/Church of Sweden }}

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld () (29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld remains the only U.N. Secretary-General to die in office, and his death occurred ''en route'' to cease-fire negotiations. Praised by many, President of the United States John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjöld “the greatest statesman of our century".

Early life

Dag Hammarskjöld was born in Jönköping, Sweden, but spent most of his childhood in Uppsala. The fourth and youngest son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Prime Minister of Sweden from 1914 to 1917, and Agnes Hammarskjöld (née Almquist), Hammarskjöld's ancestors served the Monarchy of Sweden since the 17th century. He studied first at Katedralskolan and then at Uppsala University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and a Master's degree in Political economy. During this time he served for a year as the first Curator at Uplands Nation later moving to Stockholm.

From 1930 to 1934, Hammarskjöld was a Secretary on a governmental committee on unemployment. During this time he wrote his economics thesis, "''Konjunkturspridningen''" ("The Spread of the Business Cycle"), and received a doctorate from Stockholm University. In 1936, he became a Secretary at the Sveriges Riksbank and was soon promoted. From 1941 to 1948, he served as Chairman of the bank.

During this time Hammarskjöld also held political positions. Early in 1945, he was appointed an adviser to the cabinet on financial and economic problems. He helped coordinate government plans to alleviate the economic problems of the post-war period. In 1947, Hammarskjöld was appointed to a position with Sweden’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and in 1949 he became the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs. A delegate to the Paris conference that established the Marshall Plan, in 1948 he was again in Paris to attend a conference for the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation. In 1950, he became head of the Swedish delegation to UNISCAN. In 1951, he became a cabinet Minister without Portfolio. Although Hammarskjöld served in a cabinet dominated by the Social Democrats, he never officially joined any political party. In 1951, Hammarskjöld became Vice Chairman of the Swedish delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in Paris. He became the Chairman of the Swedish delegation to the General Assembly in New York in 1952. On 20 December 1954, he was elected to take his father's vacated seat in the Swedish Academy.

UN Secretary-General

When Trygve Lie resigned from his post as UN Secretary-General in 1953, the United Nations Security Council recommended Hammarskjöld for the post. It came as a surprise to him. Seen as a competent technocrat without political views, he was selected on 31 March by a majority of 10 out of eleven Security Council members. The UN General Assembly elected him in the 7–10 April session by 57 votes out of 60. In 1957, he was re-elected.

Hammarskjöld began his term by establishing his own secretariat of 4,000 administrators and setting up regulations that defined their responsibilities. He was also actively engaged in smaller projects relating to the UN working environment. For example, he planned and supervised in every detail the creation of a "meditation room" in the UN headquarters. This is a place dedicated to silence where people can withdraw into themselves, regardless of their faith, creed, or religion.

During his term, Hammarskjöld tried to smooth relations between Israel and the Arab states. Other highlights include a 1955 visit to China to negotiate release of 15 captured US pilots who had served in the Korean War, the 1956 establishment of the United Nations Emergency Force, and his intervention in the 1957 Suez Crisis. He is given credit by some historians for allowing participation of the Holy See within the United Nations that year.

In 1960, the former Belgian Congo and then newly independent Congo asked for UN aid in defusing the Congo Crisis. Hammarskjöld made four trips to the Congo. His efforts towards the decolonisation of Africa were considered insufficient by the Soviet Union; in September 1960, the Soviet government denounced his decision to send a UN emergency force to keep the peace. They demanded his resignation and the replacement of the office of Secretary-General by a three-man directorate with a built-in veto, the "troika". The objective was to, citing the memoirs of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, “equally represent interests of three groups of countries: capitalist, socialist and recently independent.” Hammarskjöld denied Patrice Lumumba's request to help force the Katanga Province to rejoin the Congo, causing Lumumba to turn to the Soviets for help. He personally disliked Lumumba and felt that he should be removed from office.

Death

In September 1961, Hammarskjöld learned about fighting between "non-combatant" UN forces and Katangese troops of Moise Tshombe. He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on the night of 17–18 September when his Douglas DC-6 airliner SE-BDY crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Hammarskjöld and fifteen others perished in the crash.

A special report issued by the United Nations following the crash stated that a bright flash in the sky was seen at approximately 1 am the previous night. According to the UN special report, it was this information that resulted in the initiation of search and rescue operations. Initial indications that the crash may have been deliberate led to multiple official inquiries and persistent speculation that the Secretary-General was assassinated.

Hammarskjöld's death was a memorable event. At the site exists the Dag Hammarskjöld Crash Site Memorial, which is under consideration for inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A press release issued by the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo stated that, "... in order to pay a tribute to this great man, now vanished from the scene, and to his colleagues, all of whom have fallen victim to the shameless intrigues of the great financial Powers of the West... the Government has decided to proclaim Tuesday, 19 September 1961, a day of national mourning."

Official inquiry

Following the death of Hammarskjöld, there were three inquiries into the circumstances that led to the crash: the Rhodesian Board of Investigation, the Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry, and the United Nations Commission of Investigation.

The Rhodesian Board of Investigation looked into the matter between 19 September 1961 and 2 November 1961 under the command of British Lt. Colonel M.C.B. Barber. The Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry held hearings from 16–29 January 1962 without United Nations oversight. The subsequent United Nations Commission of Investigation held a series of hearings in 1962 and in part depended upon the testimony from the previous Rhodesian inquiries. Five "eminent persons" were assigned by the new Secretary-General to the UN Commission. The members of the commission unanimously elected Nepalese diplomat Rishikesh Shaha to head an inquiry.

The three official inquiries failed to determine conclusively the cause of the crash that led to the death of Hammarskjöld. The Rhodesian Board of Investigation sent 180 men to search a six-square-kilometer area of the last sector of the aircraft's flight-path, looking for evidence as to the cause of the crash. No evidence of a bomb, surface-to-air missile, or hijacking was found. The official report stated that two of the dead Swedish bodyguards had suffered multiple bullet wounds. Medical examination, performed by the initial Rhodesian Board of Investigation and reported in the UN official report, indicated that the wounds were superficial, and that the bullets showed no signs of rifling. They concluded that the bullets exploded in the fire in close proximity to the bodyguards. No other evidence of foul play was found in the wreckage of the aircraft.

Previous accounts of a bright flash in the sky were dismissed as occurring too late in the evening to have caused the crash. The UN report speculated that these flashes may have been caused by secondary explosions after the crash. The sole survivor, Sergeant Harold Julian, indicated that there was a series of explosions that preceded the crash. The official inquiry found that the statements of witnesses who talked with Julian were inconsistent.

The report states that there were numerous delays that violated the established search and rescue procedures. There were three separate delays: the first delayed the initial alarm of a possible plane in trouble; the second delayed the "distress" alarm, which indicates that communications with surrounding airports indicate that a missing plane has not landed elsewhere; the third delayed the eventual search and rescue operation and the discovery of the plane wreckage, just miles away. The medical examiners report was inconclusive; one report said that Hammarskjöld had died on impact; another stated that Hammarskjöld might have survived had rescue operations not been delayed. The report also said that the chances of Sgt. Julian surviving the crash would have been "infinitely" better if the rescue operations had been hastened.

Alternative theories

Despite the multiple official inquiries that failed to find evidence of assassination, some continue to believe that the death of Hammarskjöld was not an accident.

Harry Truman is reported to have said that "Dag Hammarskjöld was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said, 'when they killed him'."

At the time of Hammarskjöld's death, Western intelligence agencies were actively involved in the political situation in the Congo, which culminated in Belgian and American support for the secession of Katanga and the assassination of former prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Belgium and the United Kingdom had a vested interest in maintaining their control over much of the country's copper industry during the Congolese transition from colonialism to independence. Concerns about the nationalization of the copper industry could have provided a financial incentive to remove either Lumumba or Hammarskjöld. Belgium has since publicly acknowledged and apologized for its negligence in the death of Lumumba.

The involvement of British officers in commanding the initial inquiries, which provided much of the information about the condition of the plane and the examination of the bodies, has led some to suggest a conflict of interest. The official report dismissed a number of pieces of evidence that would have supported the view that Hammarskjöld was assassinated. Some of these dismissals have been controversial, such as the conclusion that bullet wounds could have been caused by bullets exploding in a fire. Expert tests have questioned this conclusion, arguing that exploding bullets could not break the surface of the skin Major C. F. Westell, a ballistics authority, said, "I can certainly describe as sheer nonsense the statement that cartridges of machine guns or pistols detonated in a fire can penetrate a human body." He based his statement on a large scale experiment that had been done to determine if military fire brigades would be in danger working near munitions depots. Other Swedish experts conducted and filmed tests showing that bullets heated to the point of explosion nonetheless did not achieve sufficient velocity to penetrate their box container.

Sir Denis A H Wright, the then British Ambassador to Ethiopia, in his annual report for 1961 establishes linkage of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold’s death on 18 September to British refusal to allow an Ethiopian Military plane carrying troops destined to join the UN mission, landing at Entebbe and over-flying British territory to Congo. Their refusal was only lifted after the death of the Secretary General. A Foreign Office official noting his comments on file, wrote affirming no “skeletons” in British cupboard and suggesting the Ambassador's comments should be removed from the final, official ‘printed’ version of the annual report.

On 19 August 1998, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), stated that recently uncovered letters had implicated the British MI5, the American CIA, and then South African intelligence services in the crash. One TRC letter said that a bomb in the aircraft's wheel bay was set to detonate when the wheels came down for a landing. Tutu said that they were unable to investigate the truth of the letters or the allegations that South Africa or Western intelligence agencies played a role in the crash. The British Foreign Office suggested that they may have been created as Soviet misinformation or disinformation.

On 29 July 2005, the Norwegian Major General, Bjørn Egge, gave an interview to the newspaper ''Aftenposten'' on the events surrounding Hammarskjöld's death. According to General Egge, who had been the first UN officer to see the body, Hammarskjöld had a hole in his forehead, and this hole was subsequently airbrushed from photos taken of the body. It appeared to Egge that Hammarskjöld had been thrown from the plane, and grass and leaves in his hands might indicate that he survived the crash – and that he had tried to scramble away from the wreckage. Egge does not claim directly that the wound was a gunshot wound.

In his speech to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 23 September 2009, Colonel Gaddafi called upon the Libyan president of UNGA, Ali Treki, to institute a UN investigation into the assassinations of Congolese prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, who was overthrown in 1960 and murdered the following year, and of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961.

According to a dozen witnesses interviewed by Swedish aid worker Göran Björkdahl in the 2000s, Hammarskjöld's plane was shot down by another aircraft. Björkdahl also reviewed previously unavailable archive documents and internal UN communcations. He believes that there was an intentional shootdown for the benefit of mining companies like Union Minière.

Honors

Nobel Peace Prize: Hammarskjöld received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961, having been nominated before his death.

Honorary degrees: The Carleton University in Ottawa (then called Carleton College) awarded its first-ever honorary degree to Hammarskjöld in 1954 when it presented him with a Legum Doctor, ''honoris causa''. The University has continued this tradition by conferring an honorary doctorate upon every subsequent Secretary General of the United Nations. He also held honorary degrees from Oxford University, England; in the United States from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Amherst, Johns Hopkins, the University of California, and Ohio University; in Sweden, Uppsala University; and in Canada from McGill University as well as Carleton. On April 6, 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Hammarskjöld's image will be used on the 1000 kronor banknote, the highest-denomination banknote in Sweden.

Legacy

John F. Kennedy: After Hammarskjöld's death, U.S. President John F. Kennedy regretted that he opposed the UN policy in the Congo and said: “I realise now that in comparison to him, I am a small man. He was the greatest statesman of our century.” Refusal to resign: One of Hammarskjöld's greatest moments was refusing to give in to Soviet pressure to resign. Dag Hammarskjöld: "It is very easy to bow to the wish of a big power. It is another matter to resist it. If it is the wish of those nations who see the organization their best protection in the present world, I shall do so again." In 2011 ''The Financial Times'' reported that Hammarskjöld has remained the benchmark against which later UN Secretary-Generals have been judged.

Historians' views:

*Historian Paul Kennedy hailed Hammarskjöld in his book ''The Parliament of Man'' as perhaps the greatest UN Secretary-General because of his ability to shape events, in contrast with his successors.

*In contrast, the right-wing writer Paul Johnson in ''A History of the Modern World from 1917 to the 1980s'' (1983) was highly critical of his judgment.

Libraries:

*The Dag Hammarskjöld Library, a part of the United Nations headquarters, was dedicated on 16 November 1961 in honour of the late Secretary-General.

*Uppsala University: thumb|The Dag Hammarskjöld Library in Uppsala There is also a Dag Hammarskjöld Library at his alma mater, Uppsala University.

Buildings and rooms:

*Columbia University: The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York has a Dag Hammarskjöld Lounge. The graduate school is dedicated to the principles of international peace and cooperation that Hammarskjöld embodied.

Stanford University: Dag Hammarskjöld House on the Stanford University campus is a residence cooperative for undergraduate and graduate students with international backgrounds and interests at Stanford.

*The Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations in Geneva, Switzerland has a room named after him.

*Dag Hammarskjöld Stadium is the main football stadium of Ndola, Zambia. Hammarskjold's ill-fated flight in 1961 crashed in the outskirts of Ndola.

Streets:

*Dag Hammarskjölds Gade is a street in Aalborg, Denmark

*Dag Hammarskjölds Väg is one of the longest streets in Uppsala, Sweden. There are several other streets in Sweden sharing this name.

*Dag Hammarskjöld's Allé is a street in Copenhagen, Denmark.

*The headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) in Santiago, Chile lies on Avenida Dag Hammarskjöld.

*The headquarters of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Society for International Cooperation, GIZ), is on Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg in Eschborn, Germany.

New York City: A Manhattan park near the United Nations headquarters is called the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, as are several of the surrounding office buildings.

Religious commemoration: He is also commemorated as a peacemaker in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on 18 September of each year.

Schools: A number of schools have been named after Hammarskjöld, including Hammarskjold Middle School in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey; Dag Hammarskjold Middle School in Wallingford, Connecticut; Dag Hammarskjold Elementary School in Parma, Ohio; and Hammarskjold High School in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation: thumb|The Dag Hammarskjöld centre in Uppsala (housing the secretariat of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation) In 1962, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation was created as Sweden's national memorial to Dag Hammarskjöld.

Memorial awards:

Medal: On 22 July 1997, the U.N. Security Council in resolution 1121(1997) established the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal in recognition and commemoration of those who have lost their lives as a result of UN peacekeeping operations.

Prize in Peace and Conflict Studies: Colgate University annually awards a student the Dag Hammarskjöld Prize in Peace and Conflict Studies based on outstanding work in the program.

Postage Stamp: United States Postal Service 4-cent value postage stamp, issued on 23 October 1962. Famous for its misprint, this stamp is often referred to as the Dag Hammarskjöld invert.

Spirituality and ''Markings''

In 1953, soon after his appointment as United Nations secretary general, Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In this talk he declared: "But the explanation of how man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek] for whom 'self-surrender' had been the way to self-realization, and who in 'singleness of mind' and 'inwardness' had found strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it."

His only book, ''Vägmärken'' (''Markings''), was published in 1963. A collection of his diary reflections, the book starts in 1925, when he was 20 years old, and ends at his death in 1961 This diary was found in his New York house, after his death, along with an undated letter addressed to then Swedish Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Leif Belfrage. In this letter, Dag writes, "These entries provide the only true 'profile' that can be drawn...If you find them worth publishing, you have my permission to do so". The foreword is written by W.H. Auden, a friend of Dag's. ''Markings'' was described by a theologian, the late Henry P. Van Dusen, as "the noblest self-disclosure of spiritual struggle and triumph, perhaps the greatest testament of personal faith written ... in the heat of professional life and amidst the most exacting responsibilities for world peace and order." Hammarskjöld writes, for example, "We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. He who wills adventure will experience it—according to the measure of his courage. He who wills sacrifice will be sacrificed—according to the measure of his purity of heart." ''Markings'' is characterised by Hammarskjöld's intermingling of prose and haiku poetry in a manner exemplified by the 17th-century Japanese poet Basho in his ''Narrow Roads to the Deep North''. In his foreword to ''Markings'', the English poet W. H. Auden quotes Hammarskjöld as stating "In our age, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action."

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commemorates the life of Hammarskjöld as a renewer of society on the anniversary of his death, September 18.

Bibliography

Durel, Bernard, op, (2002), «Au jardin secret d’un diplomate suédois: ''Jalons'' de Dag Hammarskjöld, un itinéraire spirituel», ''La Vie Spirituelle'' (Paris). T. 82, pp. 901–922.

Urquhart, Brian, (1972), ''Hammarskjold''. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Velocci, Giovanni, cssr, (1998), «Hammarskjold Dag», in Luigi Borriello, ocd – Edmondo Caruana, ocarm – Maria Rosaria Del Genio – N. Suffi (dirs.), ''Dizionario di mistica''. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano, pp. 624–626.

See also

Dag Hammarskjöld invert

The Hammarskjöld Trophy Competition

References

External links

Dag Hammarskjöld – biography, quotes, photos and videos

UNSG Dag Hammarskjold Conference on 9-10 November 2011 at Peace Palace

Weekly blog exploring Hammarskjöld's political wisdom

Video of Hammarskjöld's funeral in Pathe archive

UNSG Ban Ki-Moon Lays Wreath Honouring Dag Hammarskjold of 1 October 2009 and UNSG with King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

UNSG Kofi Annan, ''Dag Hammarskjöld and the 21st century'', The Fourth Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture 6 September 2001, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Uppsala University (pdf)

About Dag Hammarskjöld (Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation)

United Nations Secretaries-General

Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General at the official website of the UN

Biography

The Nobel Prize

Letters say Hammarskjöld's death Western plot

Media briefing by Archbishop Desmond Tutu

18 September 1961 UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld is killed and BBC

Audio of Dag Hammarskjold's response to Russian pressure From UPI Audio Archives

List of people who converted to Catholicism

Category:1905 births Category:1961 deaths Category:People from Jönköping Category:United Nations Secretaries-General Category:United Nations officials Category:Nobel Peace Prize laureates Category:Swedish diplomats Category:Swedish economists Category:Swedish Lutherans Category:Swedish nobility Category:Members of the Swedish Academy Category:Uppsala University alumni Category:Stockholm University alumni Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Category:Cold War diplomats Category:Christian mystics Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Zambia Category:Swedish Nobel laureates Category:Conspiracy theories Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Zambia

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