The Dishonorable Dr. Cook: Debunking the Notorious McKinley Hoax

By Peter Cherici

Book Overview

* Contains never-before-published and hard-to-find information * Showcases eight breathtaking, previously unpublished photos by Bradford Washburn For 50 years, celebrated mountaineer Bradford Washburn was obsessed with Frederick Cook's claim to have been the first to reach the summit of Mount McKinley in 1906. Washburn's conclusion: Cook was a fraud. At the very least Frederick Cook was a showman of outsized proportion. The Dishonorable Dr. Cook tells the story of the colorful Cook - what sort of man he was, why he staked his reputation on a flimsy story, and why so many people have been anxious to debunk his claims. Other details of Cook's checkered career are also included, such as his role in Peary's unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole in 1892-1893, his own amazing circumnavigation of McKinley in 1903, and his determination to be the first to reach the North Pole. Cook's account of the 1906 McKinley ascent is described, followed by evidence against it. Most compelling, however, are the side-by-side comparisons of Cook's original photos with Washburn's identical ones, taken decades later, from locations very different than Cook alleged. Washburn's name is all but synonymous with Mount McKinley, and his skill in recreating the photos is incomparable.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898868041
• ISBN13: 9780898868043
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 185 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

This book belatedly credits Bryce

In response to previous reviews -- The hardcover 1st edition I am holding in my hand includes a sticker on page 18 (after the preface and intro) that reads: "BIBLIOGRAPHIC ENTRY AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT The Mountaineers Books and the authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the valuable work of Robert M. Bryce in _Cook & Peary: The Polar Controversy Resolved_, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA (1997; 1133 pages) The work covers the life of Dr. Frederick A. Cook and is illustrated with photos, maps, and sketches, and fully annotated with over 2,000 footnotes. The authors relied on this seminal reference for important factual information not previously published about Dr. Cook's early life and his subsequent claims to have climbed Mt. McKinley. We regret the omission of proper credit and citation in the original bibliography for _The Dishonorable Dr. Cook_."

Putting Dr. Cook to rest.....

Late Bradford Washburn is no stranger to Mount McKinley, its history and its environment. So I am bit surprised that people don't give him his due credit when he came out with this book that centered around Dr. Frederick Cook and his false claims to be the first man to climbed Mount McKinley. One previous reviewer wrote about the book Robert Bryce did on the same subject and how Washburn failed to credit him. It could be that maybe Washburn did forget. But then it could be that Washburn knew enough about the subject himself to come up with a book that centered strictly around Dr. Cook's fraud-ridden McKinley climb, using Cook's own photographs to discredit him completely. This book is well illustrated to prove beyond the shadow of any doubt, that Dr. Cook faked his story about climbing Mount McKinley. Washburn uses Cook's own photographs and compared it with modern ones and pointed it out on the map to show where Cook was at each photograph. Authors also showed how Cook's photos were cropped to create a fantasy to support Cook's claims of conquering McKinley when he came no where close to it. The book is very clearly written, easy to read and follow. I highly recommended this book to anyone who have any interest in the history of McKinley, plus the photographs inside, even Cook's, proves to be quite noteworthy as well. At least for me, this book settled all accounts on Dr. Frederick Cook's big hoax.

Pleased say that we personally know a great author, congrats

Pete did a wonderful job in this book, Cook clearly was a fraud. No more question in my mind. Hope Pete gets in touch with us soon, its been far to long. Great Work! Ron & Anita

Brilliant! Long overdue!

Washburn is a thorough detective who leaves no doubt Cook was a fraud. His photography from airplanes, and the illustrations show the true scale of the mountains, peaks, glaciers, etc. surrounding McKinley. This makes it easy to understand why his companions back at camp immediately recognized Cook's claim as a lie. They knew he could not have covered all that distance, climbed that mother of all mountains, and then come back in so few days. What fascinates me is how Cook got the public to believe it by working the media. His magazine stories and photos, books, lectures, all created the illusion that he had done something spectacular. But he had not! He only went camping ...Washburn is a remarkable individual, a fine writer, and a photographer on a par with Ansel Adams. This work is a masterpiece from a mountaineering genius. It is too bad he had nothing more than Cook to use as a foil. By the way - the publisher made a serious mistake using the smallest type font used for body text I have ever seen in a book. One could increase font size several points and still have generous margins. What were they thinking? This is tiny text! A flaw I'll try to overlook from this magnificent end to the Cook debate.

Washburn and Cherici leave no doubt !!

Washburn and Cherici leave no doubt that Dr. Cook was a fraud. The book carefully lays out its claim in undisputable evidence both through text and pictures. I couldn't put the book down. I will be surprised if this work doesn't nail the lid on the century long controversy.