Product Description

This book is about one of the most enduring and vitriolic feuds in the history of exploration. "What a consummate cur he is" said Robert Peary of Frederick Cook in 1911. Cook responded, "Peary has stooped to every crime from rape to murder." They started as friends and shipmates, with Cook, a doctor, accompanying Peary, a civil engineer, on a Greenland expedition in 1891. Peary's leg was shattered in an accident and without Cook's care he might not have walked again. But, by the summer of 1909, the goodwill was gone. Peary said he had reached the North Pole in September, 1909; Cook presented evidence that he got there in 1908. A century later, the battle still rages. Bruce Henderson makes a wonderful narrative out of the claims and counterclaims, and he introduces fascinating scientific and psychological evidence to put the appalling details of polar travel in a new context.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #642731 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
"Henderson gives an exciting account of the pair's adventures on various explorations in which high dangers, privation, starvation, scurvy and icy death all play a part." Roy Herbert, New Scientist"

About the Author
Bruce Henderson is the author or co-author of many nonfiction books, including The New York Times bestseller, And the Sea Will Tell.

Customer Reviews

North Pole controversy
This book deals with the controversy surrounding the race to be first to the North Pole at the beginning of the 20th century. Henderson does a good job of covering the drama and pretty much demolishes Peary's claims. He is more sympathetic towards Cook and significantly plays down the doubts surrounding his Mckinley (non)ascent which would, at least to me, negate Cook's claims too. Which leaves the question of who was actually first to the Pole overland neatly unanswered. Amazingly this may not have been until as late as 1968! An entertaining read if taken with a pinch of salt.

Peary, Cook, Henson and Bartlett
This is the most rounded and objective description of the race to the North Pole that I have ever read. Other books lead you to the conclusion that Peary reached the pole first and that Cook definitely did not. Other books tell you Peary was driven, single-minded and determined not to share the glory with another white man. Henderson's version leads you to the conclusion that Peary, although he did get close to the pole on his final attempt in 1909, did not reach the pole. Peary then used his connections to spoil the claim by Dr. Cook. Cook was a very capable polar explorer and may have actually reached the pole but there can never be any proof. Henderson does not explore the treatment of Henson and Bartlett as well as other books but in the setting he creates it is not likely he was fair to either. Excellent book.