Fred's Dairy
He was born into poverty. Fred met with early success as a Brooklyn, New York, milkman. Then he became a social climber using his dairy profits to pay for a 2-year doctor's degree. It did him little good as his Brooklyn neighbors knew he was their milkman. Without any patients he was unable to earn a living as a physician. Seeing a story in the newspaper he volunteered to work for free on Lt. Robert E. Peary's Greenland Expedition. Cook got his big break!


Peary Envy
After only 1-year in the arctic Cook developed a lifelong case of Peary envy. Seeing how good Peary had it, Fred wanted to be famous, too. In pathetic imitation of Robert Peary he performed an arctic lecture series and even exploited Eskimos in a circus side show. For many years thereafter he became a parasite of other people's polar expeditions. Fred managed to use the funds and yachts of wealthy men to go north, often serving as a hunting guide. He even bummed a ride to Antarctic with some Belgians who got their ship stuck in the ice. On the way home he stole a man's life work - a dictionary of the Patagonian native language that Fred later published under his own name!


If You Need Money, Marry It
For money he married a wealthy widow and with her financial help went on a trip to Mt. McKinley, North America's highest peak. No one had ever reached the top. Although Fred had no mountain climbing experience he returned claiming he had scaled the summit. How did he do that? He bribed the climbing guide! He even had faked pictures. To evade an investigation into the authenticity of his McKinley claim, Cook used a millionaire gambling friend's (John Bradley) ship to high tale it North. After slaughtering herds of walrus and every living polar bear in sight, Cook disappeared to fake his trip to the North Pole.

© 2001 Rusty Robinson and Fred Cook