Finding the North Pole Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a facsimile copy of a very common 1909 "book" cheaply produced in 1909 and rushed to market to cash in on the sensation of the Cook hoax. In fact, the facsimile method shows up in some broken text but mostly in the poor photo quality. I have scanned and restored (digitally) many photos from the (1909) original so I know they can be made into decent prints. However, when this arrived I could tell that the publisher spent no time or effort restoring images - they are simply washed out facsimiles.
Used but original edition of "Finding The North Pole" are so common they just about drop out trees if you look on the used market or even ebay, so I can't fathom why this was put back in print. There can't be much demand for it as it was a hastily assembled venture of sensational and inaccurate information. The publisher simply couldn't wait to rush something to print in 1909 when Cook tried to claim he had miraculously reached the Pole before the Peary expedition. Shortly after publication, in fact, Cook was run out of town when his "data" was called a "childish attempt at cheating" by the scientists who examined it.
Mark Twain said that "A lie can travel halfway around the world in the time it takes the truth to put on its shoes". This book was a perfect testament to that clever observation in 1909. One wonders why the lie has to be put back on the market 90 years later. Maybe not everyone reads Twain?
This reprint is probably useful to researchers who want to appreciate what misinformation was presented to the "man on the street" during the brief 1909 "polar controversy" without contracting mildew from an original.

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Finding the North Pole has Dr. Cook's own story of his discovery, April 21, 1908 and the story of Commander Peary's discovery, April 6, 1909, together with the marvelous record of former arctic expeditions.Not only the people of the United States of America, but the whole civilized world were electrified by the announcement on September 1, 1909, through the public press that dispatches had been received from Dr. Frederick A. Cook, claiming that he had the great honor, on April 21, 1908, of reaching the long-sought-for goal, the physical North Pole of the earth.Nor had the resulting excitement subsided before Commander Robert E. Peary, U.S.N. cabled to the Associated Press on September 5, 1909, that he had planted the Stars and Stripes upon the North Pole on April 6, 1909.The sensation was without parallel in the history of polar discovery.Where men had for centuries striven in vain it suddenly was told to the world that two Americans had independently achieved the supreme goal of their ambitions.Nothing can be more interesting or inspiring than the story of the men who have braved the hardship and perils of the Arctic regions, and apart form Dr. Cook's report of his expedition, this book contains interesting accounts of Peary's and other important polar discoveries and experiences.The Introduction was written by George W. Melville, Rear Admiral U.S. Navy (Retired), the survivor of three arctic expeditions who was given a gold medal by Congress for his distinguished services.He was a member of the DeLong Expedition, and when the "Jeannette" was crushed in the ice, marched with part of the crew to the coast of Siberia at the mouth of the Lena River.He led an expedition to search for DeLong and found the relics of the ill-fated leader.Admiral Melville is one of the most experienced Arctic explorers and is an authority of the first rank on the subject of Arctic travels.

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