COOK & PEARY: THE POLAR CONTROVERSY, RESOLVED, by Robert M. Bryce (Stackpole Books, 1,152 pages, $50.00).
Author Robert Bryce employs diary entries, ships’ logs, letters, cables, and newspaper transcripts,many of which have only recently been uncovered, to settle the epic controversy about the claim by Frederick A. Cook (1865-1940) that in 1908–a year ahead of rival explorer Robert E. Peary (1856-1920)–he was the first to reach the North Pole. Part one of Bryce’s work is a chronological portrayal of events which advises the reader “to attend to the details, for in them lies clues to the resolution.” In part two, Bryce offers an analysis of the evidence presented in the first section,revealing how he came to his dramatic conclusion.
