PEARY, Robert E. The North Pole. With an Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1910.
Royal 8vo. Original green cloth, gold medallion to upper board, image of polar bear blocked in white to lower cover, head of polar bear blocked in white to spine, lettered in gilt to upper cover and spine; pp. xii, 326; four photogravures including portrait frontispiece, 112 black and white photographic plates, 1 large folding colour map; binding very lightly rubbed, occasional light spotting, mainly marginal, previous owner's inscription to front-pastedown, a very good copy.
First UK edition. Following earlier attempts, Robert Peary succeeded in reaching the North Pole on 6th April 1909. Immediately after his return, controversy broke out due to Frederick Cook's announcement, just 4 days before Peary's, of his own attainment of the Pole on 23rd September 1908. The North Pole contains no hint of the ensuing - and often acrimonious - debate concerning these competing claims. At the time, Peary came to be regarded as offering the surer claim. Cook's own published account, My Attainment of the Pole, did not appear until 1911 and inevitably appears more 'embattled' than does Peary's relatively straightforward account.
Arctic Bibliography 13230.
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