"Nail-biting true adventure."--Kirkus Reviews

In 1909, two men laid rival claims to this crown jewel of exploration. A century later, the battle rages still. This book is about one of the most enduring and vitriolic feuds in the history of exploration. "What a consummate cur he is," said Robert Peary of Frederick Cook in 1911. Cook responded, "Peary has stooped to every crime from rape to murder." They had started out as friends and shipmates, with Cook, a doctor, accompanying Peary, a civil engineer, on an expedition to northern Greenland in 1891. Peary's leg was shattered in an accident, and without Cook's care he might never have walked again. But by the summer of 1909, all the goodwill was gone. Peary said he had reached the Pole in September 1909; Cook scooped him, presenting evidence that he had gotten there in 1908. Bruce Henderson makes a wonderful narrative out of the claims and counterclaims, and he introduces fascinating scientific and psychological evidence to put the appalling details of polar travel in a new context.

The author of Barrow’s Boys offers a fascinating look at the exploration of the Arctic in the nineteenth century. Named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, the Seattle Times, Publishers Weekly, and Time In the nineteenth century, theories about the North Pole ran rampant. Was it an open sea? Was it a portal to new worlds within the globe? Or was it just a wilderness of ice? When Sir John Franklin disappeared in the Arctic in 1845, explorers decided it was time to find out. In scintillating detail, Ninety Degrees North tells of the vying governments (including the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Austria-Hungary) and fantastic eccentrics (from Swedish balloonists to Italian aristocrats) who, despite their heroic failures, often achieved massive celebrity as they battled shipwreck, starvation, and sickness to reach the top of the world. Drawing on unpublished archives and long-forgotten journals, Fergus Fleming recounts this riveting saga of humankind’s search for the ultimate goal with consummate craftsmanship and wit. “Barely a page goes by without the loss of a crew member or a body part . . . Fleming [is] a marvelous teller of tales—and a superb thumbnail biographer.” —The Observer “A fable of men driven to extremes by the lust for knowledge as epic as a Greek myth.” —Time

Chronicles the nearly century-long feud between rival explorers Robert Peary and Frederick Cook, both of whom, in spite of an early friendship, both claimed to have reached the North Pole first, in an account the presents scientific and psychological evidence from their polar expeditions. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

In 1910 Roald Amundsen set off from Oslo toward the North Pole but soon received word that two Americans—Frederick Cook and Robert Peary—each claimed to have reached the Pole ahead of him. Devastated, Amundsen famously went south. For years Cook and Peary tried to convince the world of their claims. Finally the National Geographic Society endorsed Peary, and the matter seemed settled. In May 1926 an American airman, Richard Byrd, flew north in a three-engine plane, and returned with a log showing that he had flow exactly over the geographical North Pole, becoming the third man to reach that mythical spot. National Geographic again supported the claim. However, it is now obvious that Peary claimed distances he could not possibly have achieved, and it is doubtful that Cooke, who had a history of fraud, ever got even close to the pole. Byrd flew further north than anyone before, but he did not have the fuel to have made the journey he claimed—his log was falsified. Just three days after Byrd’s flight, Amundsen reenters the story on an airship traveling across the pole from Svalbard to Alaska, unknowingly passing directly over the pole, becoming the true first to reach it—just as he had been the first at the South Pole. The Great Polar Fraud explores the history of the three men who claimed the pole, their claims, and the subsequent doubts of those claims, effectively rewriting the history of polar exploration and putting Amundsen center stage as the rightful conqueror of both poles. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

In an era when segregation thrived and Jim Crow reigned supreme, adventurer Matthew A. Henson defied racial stereotypes. During his teenage years, Henson sailed on vessels that journeyed across the globe, and it is those experiences that caught the attention of famed arctic explorer Matthew Peary. Operating as Peary’s “first man” on six expeditions that spanned over a quarter of century, Henson was an essential member of all of Peary’s most famous expeditions. His unparalleled skills as a craftsman and his mastery of the dialects of native Northern peoples, Henson was indispensable to the success of these missions. Of all voyages which Henson and Peary undertook, none is more groundbreaking then their 1909 journey to Greenland, and onto the previously impenetrable North Pole. Together with a small team of four native Intuits, Henson and Peary became the first team to ever reach the geographic North Pole, forever cementing their place as two of the greatest Arctic explorers of all time. In 1937, the Explorer’s Club honored that achievement, inducting Henson as their first ever African-American member. In 1912, Henson chronicled his recollections of this historic journey in a memoir originally entitled A Negro Explorer at the North Pole. Now reissued as First to the North Pole, this edition of Henson’s memoir features a new foreword by Explorer Club president Ted Janulis, emphasizing the importance of Henson’s historic achievements. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Not just the final word on what Cook and Peary did and did not do, but is also a full, fair examination of their lives. A finely drawn picture of the last days of the great expeditions, when explorers willingly risked their lives in pursuit of intangible and impossible goals.

A polar explorer describes his efforts to recreate Robert Peary's 1909 dogsled journey to the North Pole, describing the hardships and dangers he and his team faced and comparing their modern journey to Peary's trip one hundred years ago.

Heroism and horror abound in these true stories of 16 great explorers who journeyed to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, two exquisite and unique ice wildernesses. Recounted are the exciting North Pole adventures of Erik the Red in 982 and the elusive searches for the &“Northwest Passage&” and &“Farthest North&” of Henry Hudson, Fridtjof Nansen, Fredrick Cook, and Robert Peary. Coverage of the South Pole begins with Captain Cook in 1772; continues through the era of land grabbing and the race to reach the Pole with James Clark Ross, Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott, and Ernest Shackleton; and ends with an examination of the scientists at work there today. Astounding photographs and journal entries, sidebars on the Inuit and polar animals, and engaging activities bring the harrowing expeditions to life. Activities include making a Viking compass, building a model igloo, making a cross staff to measure latitude, creating a barometer, making pemmican, and writing a newspaper like William Parry's &“Winter Chronicle.&” The North and South Poles become exciting routes to learning about science, geography, and history.