"In September 1906, Dr. Frederick A. Cook walked out of the Alaskan wilderness and announced that he had just become the first person to climb 20,320-foot Mount McKinley - the highest peak in North America. It was a daring feat of relentless courage, capturing the imagination of the American public as few events have before or since.".

"But soon controversy began to brew: There was something not quite right about Cook's story. Thus began one of the twentieth century's great detective stories. Had Cook made it to the top or hadn't he?".

"Celebrated explorer and mountain photographer Bradford Washburn has been one of the principal investigators leading the case against Cook for more than fifty years, acting as prosecutor in the mock trial held in 1995 under the auspices of the University of Alaska. What sort of man was Cook? Why did he persist in such a flimsy story until the day he died? How did he fool his supporters for so long? Why have some people been so eager to credit Cook's claims, and others equally determined to disprove them?

In The Dishonorable Dr. Cook: Debunking the Notorious Mount McKinley Hoax, Washburn and co-author Peter Cherici trace the trajectory of Cook's infamous career, including his role in Edmund Peary's unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole in 1892/93, his amazing circumnavigation of McKinley in 1903, and his burning desire to beat Peary to the North Pole."--BOOK JACKET.