The Explorer and the Journalist

by Richard Evans

ISBN: 9781803991931

Published: 2023-05-25

The first book to explore in full the extraordinary story of how a British journalist risked his career to expose American explorer Frederick Cook, who claimed to be the first person to reach the North Pole, as a fraud On 1 September 1909, a telegram from American explorer Frederick Cook caused perhaps the biggest sensation in polar exploration history. With no word from Cook for over a year and many assuming he was dead, here came the news that not only had he survived his Arctic expedition, but he had claimed one of the great prizes in exploration by becoming the first person to reach the North Pole. Cook was instantly transformed into one of the heroes of the age. And with his boat due to arrive in Copenhagen a few days later, the world's journalists scrambled to get there in time to meet him. One of those journalists was Philip Gibbs, a young reporter for the Daily Chronicle in London, who had a chance encounter in a Copenhagen café that led to him getting an exclusive...