Navigator of New York, ISBN 035507674, Wayne Johnston

Navigator of New York, ISBN 035507674, by Canadian writer Wayne Johnston

a review by Russell R. Robinson of the sham history novel Navigator of New York

“...the skill and acumen of a practiced faker" be at work—qualities that are subtle and not always readily discernible."

"A group of people, some of them innocent and misled and others not classifiable in polite terms, have been busily engaged in trying to filch from Peary the credit due him as discoverer of the North Pole in the interests of Dr. Cook. Most Americans supposed that the Cook issue died a natural death years ago. The time will undoubtedly come when... the activities of this man and the press of the country will ultimately do its part against the circulation of perversions of history with respect to the great feat that Admiral Peary achieved, an honor of which through all future ages no nation can rob us." [Congressman Fess, 1915]

We cut off the top of Rusty's head to match the cover photo.

"...one of the biggest fibs in Canadian literary history ...Farley Mowat did not conduct the Arctic research he described..."

(above) This may be one of the most illogical declarations ever published. Fiction is fiction; there is no such thing as "real people in imaginary space and time" nor "imaginary people in real space and time." There are only real people or imaginary ones. There is only real time and space or imaginary time and space. But there are no real people in imaginary spaces. Fiction is called fiction because one just makes that shit up—it's not real.

Pulp history-fiction

That infamous turn of the century plagiarist, Mt. McKinley fraud, polar fraud, vindictive Chautauqua lecturer, stock fraud, and bitter ex-convict is back! Crooked Cook returns from the crematorium to star as Wayne Johnston's imaginary hero inhabiting imaginary time & space in a Canadian history-fiction novel...but why?

For once I had no trouble figuring out whom the bad guy was in this heavy-handed piece of "get even with history" genre of fiction. No, not the sociopath milkman from Brooklyn whose career of criminal fraud landed him in Federal Prison. In real history it may be reversed, but no matter; this is anti-Peary/anti-Henson/anti-establishment revisionist history-fiction where anything could have happened. The Evil Dr. Cook is now the hero of this novel. To me this is about the weirdest thing I can imagine.

Future "History-fiction" works might include: Bin Laden as the hero, President Bush an evil fool and Colin Powell would wash Bush's smelly boxer shorts while the President screams verbal abuse at him. I think that fits the same writing formula for History-fiction as Wayne Johnston’s "Dr. Crooked Navigator" novel in which he has Peary abusing Henson.

Payback time for Hen-SONNN
My thoughts were that finally it is pay-back time for those uppity post-civil rights era Blacks who thought they had an historical icon in Arctic legend Matthew Henson. This novel should make them feel the humiliation, which I think was premeditated, that certain "whites" may have long dreamed of serving up to Negroes as payback for affirmative action, bussing, and their attempts to be equal to the white race. Henson, once called "America's greatest Negro explorer", whose US Naval ship namesake sails the world's oceans has (in Johnston's novel) been fictionalized into a slop-pail emptying servant suffering the abuses of his white manservant owner. I can imagine that white supremacist will smile as they read this fictionalized verbal abuse from Peary "...bellowing that two-part sound, the second syllable louder and more stressed than the first--'Hen-SONNN'--drawn out more and more with each repetition..."(fiction by Wayne Johnston) I can’t help believing that the genius of this book is the path it paves for distributing hate literature under the radar of unthinking readers. It furthers the work Fred Crook himself pioneered on the vindictive lecture circuit that Congressman Fess identified as "perverting history."

"American History Must not be Perverted....that there should be no perversions of our American history...it is well to be upon their guard lest, as has recently been said, “the skill and acumen of a practiced faker" be at work—qualities that are subtle and not always readily discernible." (Dr. Cook's claims)

Get-even history genre
This book made me think what could be done in the future by those who similarly want to “get even with history” by this method. Here is the first example I thought of; Ossama Bin Laden as the hero of anti-globalization. The good natured, highly intelligent freedom fighter would be the champion of the environment and portrayed as not only discovering global warming but being the only man on earth who can stop it. President Bush would be the evil character; a sick, delusional SOB who makes Colin Powell wash his smelly boxer shorts while screaming abuse at him. It fits right into the same plot formula laid out here, I think, as Wayne Johnson’s novel.

Vendetta clan leader Vetters would pay top dollar for this!
That is right--in this Canadian history-fiction novel the colossal criminal fraud Dr. Cook is the "good guy"! Peary and Henson are Dr. Evil and his lap dog. If Helene Vetters, the tireless Peary & Henson vendetta crusaded, were still alive (in the flesh) she’d write this author a big fat check from her famous $1,000,000 anti-Peary Crook Society trust fund. This kind of anti-Peary effort is on a par with the many other works she financed, encouraged and promoted.

How to slip hate literature under the reviewer's radar
The American hero of North Pole discovery, Commander Robert E. Peary, whose expedition first reached the North Pole in 1909, has been transformed into an over-the-top "bad guy". The Negro who accompanied him is, well...uh,...you know--that "n" word? I think this genre of literature is a brilliant way to pioneer new territory for advancing certain unfriendly attitudes towards non-Caucasians and those who would fraternize with them to the degree that they become special icons to their racial group as Henson did. I believe the history-fiction novel is the ultimate way to slip under the radar of all but truly well informed members of the public. This is revolutionary since the direct approach is banned as hate literature, yet this approach is more insidiously efficient. Novels can get reviewed in the New York Times and placed in public libraries across America. I think this is the best way to pervert history—by creating a custom specified mythology out of pure fiction.

Please buy my copy of Navigator of New York and help to support the drfrederickcook.com website. Forget the $28 list price! Donate some huge amount of money, please, to keep the fun work of polarcontroversy.com going, too. In fact, for $25,000 I’ll write a novel in which you or your family members save planet earth, or perhaps discover a cure for cancer, stupidity and baldness.

Russell R. Robinson, January 2003