My Attainment of the Pole

The subzero temperatures were only one of the dangers explorer Frederick Cook (1865-1940) faced in his attempts to reach the North Pole. During his extraordinary and harrowing journey, he fought off arctic wolves and polar bears, lived through ice storms, almost starved on several occasions, and faced long and lonely hours of isolation. His book relates how he learned from Eskimos how to survive in the Arctic, hunting musk ox to survive, harpooning walruses, and traveling by dog sled. After his journey, he defended himself against the charges of fellow explorer Robert Peary, who claimed that Cook had lied about reaching the Pole. My Attainment of the Pole is not only a great read for any armchair explorer, it is also a controversial work that contributed to a dispute that lasted for decades.

[This book] is a polemic—not for scientific vindication—but for popular belief, and a magnificent one, couching its true intent in the beguiling story at its core...One of the greatest of all arctic survival stories, Frederick A. Cook said he reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908; Robert E. Peary said he reached the same destination on April 6, 1909. Both explorers claimed to have been the first...Now readers can decide for themselves: Cooper Square Press has issued the explorers' illustrated accounts of their journeys and competing claims...

Frederick A. Cook was an accomplished doctor, celebrated Arctic and Antarctic explorer, author, and self-proclaimed conqueror of Mt. McKinley. Robert M. Bryce, the leading authority on the two explorers, is the author of Cook and Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved. He lives in Monrovia, Maryland, near Washington, D. C.