Hardcover, soiled, worn, Good-Very Good.

 

Who reached the North Pole first? That is a question that has been debated for nearly a century. Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole a year before Robert Peary, he claimed it in 1909 and wrote My Attainment of the Pole to explain his accomplishment. In contrast to Peary's larger expedition which involved three separate groups for trail breaking‚ laying supply depots and dashing to the Pole‚ Cook believed he could reach the North Pole by traveling quickly with a very small party which used a lighter sled made of hickory that could also be used as a boat and which actually resulted in the survival of the expedition.

 

In 1964 a prestigious North American Arctic journal called for a re-examination of Cook's claims. The president of the American Geographical Society Dr. Walter A. Wood reminded colleagues at a conference that 'if some insist that history must be served let them remember that the more we come to understand the physical geography of the Arctic Ocean the more we recognize the phenomena described by Cook but unknown at the time of his journey.'