Battle of Ice and Ink: A Sensational Story of News Barons, North Pole Explorers, and the Making of Modern Media

Polar controversy fuels the rise of the New York Times in this energetic debut from journalist Hartman. In September 1909, the New York Herald surprised the world by publishing an exclusive account of surgeon and explorer Frederick Cook’s unlikely discovery of the North Pole. Meanwhile, its archrival, the New York Times, had invested in a higher-profile expedition, led by veteran Arctic adventurer Robert Peary, which had set out a year later than Cook’s. Less than a week after Cook and the Herald claimed victory, Peary sent a telegram from Newfoundland asserting that he’d reached the North Pole. A vicious feud then unfolded, as Peary and the Times appealed to the National Geographic Society and other scientific institutions and publicly accused Cook of fraud. The controversy drove sales for both newspapers until it seemed to be resolved in December 1909 by a commission at the University of Copenhagen, which ruled that Cook had not proven he’d reached the North Pole; today it is widely believed that both men fell short of the mark. Hartman dramatically recounts the claims and counterclaims; draws colorful profiles of the explorers and their chief backers, the Herald’s James Bennett Jr. and the Times’s Albert Ochs; and incisively analyzes the populist vs. establishment aspect of the controversy. It’s as bracing as a blast of Arctic air. (June)