From Hero to Humbug

But Has the North Pole Been Discovered? was not Hall’s last word on the subject. In 1920 he published a paperbound supplement to the book which he styled as “Volume II,” which attempted to account for developments since his book’s publication. In it he devoted 52 of its 62 pages to subjects related [...]

What certainly must be considered the most influential book ever published about the Polar Controversy also had its origins in Congressman Macon’s efforts to stop the Peary promotion bill in 1911. General Thomas Hubbard, president of the Peary Arctic Club, got wind of “a mare’s nest” of information, sent to the congressman by a [...]

Probably the most obscure early study of the Polar Controversy appeared in June, 1915, as a 39-page booklet by William N. Johnson, titled Did Admiral Peary “Achieve” the North Pole. It was published in Chicago by the author and printed by the firm of Dvorak & Weiser.

It had originally been written in 1911 and [...]

The first book advocating Dr. Cook as the true discoverer of the North Pole was published in April 1913. It was the work of Edwin Swift Balch.

Balch was by no means a person of no standing.
Born in 1857, he was the son of a famous Philadelphia lawyer, and a lawyer himself, though he did [...]

Readers of this blog may remember a long series on the so-called “Eskimo Testimony” that ran in 2023 and 2024 in nineteen installments. Those posts have now all been withdrawn.
The author thought of revising them based on considerable new or additional information, but after reviewing them decided instead to issue them in book form. [...]

No legitimate publisher would touch Cook’s narrative in book form in 1911, so he formed his own “Polar Publishing Company” to issue and promote it and manage the lectures he planned to give after its publication.

T. Everett Harre was a subeditor of Hampton’s Magazine at the time Benjamin Hampton secretly contracted with Cook for a [...]

Peary had a falling out with Matt Henson after the return of his attempt to reach the North Pole in 1909 over his attempt to prevent him from going on the lecture platform. Peary was especially disturbed to learn that Henson planned to exhibit some of his own photographs, including one he claimed was [...]

On December 21, 1909, Dr. Cook’s “proofs” that he had reached the North Pole in 1908 were rejected by the special commission set up by the University of Copenhagen to examine them. Immediately he was branded nothing but a cheap fake, just as Peary had said he was. Merchants in New York City [...]

The author has recently published a new study drawing on original sources. It is now available on Amazon.com.
In 1907, Robert E. Peary first claimed that when he stood on the heights of Axel Heiberg Island in June 1906, he sighted a distant land to the northwest.
Peary named it “Crocker Land,” after the banker George [...]

This is the fourth in an occasional series that will examine the published literature in book form relevant to the details of the Polar Controversy. These books will be discussed in the order they were published.
The quintessential book of the Polar Controversy is My Attainment of the Pole, Dr. Cook’s narrative of his 1908-09 [...]