The North Pole. The Discovery in 1909 Under the Auspices of the Peary Arctic Club.

Large 8vo, cloth with illustrated top cover, illustrated with color frontispiece and seven additional color plates, and numerous black and white illustrations, folding color map in the rear, xxi, [1], 373 pp. Spine faded, top joint cracked, but still firm, bookplate; otherwise very good. Robert E. Peary (1856-1920) was a well known arctic explore who was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania. He worked for the U.S. Coast and Geologic Survey, and led a couple of survey expeditions into the Nicaraguan jungles between 1885-1888. On his second expedition he would hire Matthew Henson, a black assistant, who would end up spending 25 years with Peary and join him on his arctic expeditions. On Peary's last expedition that began in July 1908, he claimed to reach the North Pole in September 2009. However, his claim along with the claim of Frederick Cook, who claimed to get there in April 2008 created some controversy. Peary denounced Cook's claim and a publicity battle raged for several months. While Peary seemed to get the upper hand, his claims faced challenges too, and most historians do not believe he actually reached the North Pole. Nevertheless, Peary was considered a hero in his day, and he was awarded a gold medal by Congress. The introduction to this work was written by Theodore Roosevelt, and this copy was owned by James Wood Johnson, a co-founder of the Johnson and Johnson Company. The book has his bookplate. ANB.