My Attainment of the Pole. Being the Record of the Expedition that First Reached the Boreal Center, 1907-1909. With the Final Summary of the Polar Controversy.

New York: The Polar Publishing Co., 1911 Book. Fine. Hardcover. First edition. Small quarto. xx, [2], 604pp. Frontis portrait, 49 photographs, text illustrations. Index. Brown pictorial cloth. Some scattered foxing, contemporary owner's signature on blank flyleaf, slight rubbing to spine ends and corners, else a fine copy. Cook's original purpose in exploring the region west of Greenland was ostensibly to organize a hunting expedition. Just north of Etah, Cook decided that conditions were good enough for an assault on the North Pole, and set out on his journey over the sea ice with two Eskimo companions, two sledges and 26 dogs. Cook is one of the most controversial figures in the history of polar exploration. His supporters claim that he was the hero of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, the first to climb Mt. McKinley, and the first to stand at the North Pole (allegedly only four days before Robert Peary). Others insist that Cook faked his claims to both Mt. McKinley and the North Pole, and continued a career of deceit by using the mail to defraud investors in a Texas oil promotion, for which he was convicted and spent five years in federal prison. The endless controversy and debate continues over what Cook's true accomplishments were. [Ricks: p.70; Smith: 1976; Wickersham: 4904 (later printing)]..