When I disembarked from the tour boat onto Eagle Island, Robert Peary's summer home in Penobscot Bay, the docent told us that Peary (pronounced with a long "e") was the first person to the North Pole and Cook was a fraud. I then asked him if he was a relative of Peary which made him angry. This book shows that Cook was indeed a fraud, not only about the North Pole but also about a first ascent of Mount McKinley, which isn't really late breaking news. What is remarkable to me is that the author shows that Peary was also a fraud.

At over a thousand pages some may find the level of detail excruciating but I find the subject of heroic exploration fascinating. One can skip the chapters that do not interest without missing anything vital.

I'm finally finished with Robert Bryce's massive "Cook and Peary: The Polar Controversy Resolved." The book is ginormous enough that there are lots of interesting tidbits about the two polar explorers... but also there is too much extraneous detail about Cook in particular. (I really started rolling my eyes at the 20th description of a sumptuous dinner he attended.) After a while the book really starts to get repetitive... Peary accuses Cook of lying.... Cook's friends defend him... questions are raised about Peary.... rinse, repeat.

This book is really more of a biography of Cook's whole life, rather than an exploration of Cook's and Peary's claims to be the first to the North Pole. I really started skimming once I got to the 100's of pages about Cook's oil scam, which eventually landed him in jail.

Overall, I found the book to be disappointing... it was a hard, long slog without much payoff. (Does anyone really believe Cook and Peary reached the pole at this point? It's been fairly well established Cook, in particular, lied about this and his ascent up Mt. McKinley at this point.) I really didn't learn much new about either explorer that was super interesting to me.

Possibly an abridged version of this book would have been better. That said, if you're writing a research paper about Cook or Peary, this book probably has everything you need. ( )