SIX MEN by Alistair Cooke (Arcade:...

SIX MEN by Alistair Cooke (Arcade: $11.95; 207 pp., illustrated). Before he assumed the role of genial, erudite host on “Masterpiece Theatre,” Alistair Cooke was a respected broadcast and print journalist. In these gracefully written essays, he recalls six exceptional individuals he met and befriended: Charlie Chaplin, Edward VIII, H.L. Mencken, Humphrey Bogart, Adlai Stevenson and Bertrand Russell. Cooke offers a vivid portrait of Chaplin exploring ideas for a film by miming the action of the characters, a sketch of the elegantly vapid Duke of Windsor, and a striking memoir of a shy, courteous Bogart that is completely unlike his familiar tough guy image.