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| The third wave—the
vetters vendetta |
Cook's daughter, Helene Vetters took over
where her convicted felon father left off. She ultimately left,
through daughter Janet, a $1,000,000 trust fund to carry on the anti-peary
vendetta from the grave. To sum it up briefly:
After his death in 1940 Cook's grand daughter Helene Vetters kept up
the anti-Peary vendetta and made it her own obsession. She continuously promoted
anti-Peary, pro-Cook literature to magazines, and encouraged numerous
writers. As a backlash to the gains made by American blacks in the
1960's some authors have sought to destroy black icon Matthew Henson
by attacking Peary. Lately they have even pulled off the gloves and
simply
accuse Henson of being a fraud like Peary.
In the 1970's, the controversy was reignited by a book titled
Peary at the Pole; Fact of Fiction? This encouraged Vetters and
she was able to have a despicable made for TV movie produced that
stared the handsome and charming Richard Chamberlain as an innocent
Cook whose achievement was suppressed by Peary. This outraged many
people and during the 1980s the anti-Peary/pro-Cook groups began
splintering off into several branches. These in turn generated a
confusing family of anti-Peary factions that now take turns hating
Peary, hating Henson, arguing about arcane navigational details and
even hating each other.
In stepped Wally Herbert
who took his British pot shot at Peary. Many people quickly noticed
his agenda was really an effort to make his 1969 dog sled trip to the
Pole the first to reach the North Pole by virtue of his theory that
Peary was lost. It turns out that Herbert was totally wrong.
The Encyclopedia Britannica (as in Britain, get it?) was happy to
take Wally's mistakes and make them institutionalized facts to poison
the minds of their readers. There is a remarkable irony here in that
the Royal Geographical society of
Great Britain
awarded Peary its highest honors. Before Wally Herbert was born,
of course.
Then Dennis Rawlins, a man one
journalist described as "glory starved", offered his "Me, too!" revelation
about Peary. But his publicity stunt backfired on him. His headlined "discovery" of
proof that Peary was 100 miles from the Pole only proved that he was a
fool. His "secret coded numbers" proved to be nothing more
exciting than the serial numbers of
Peary's chronometers (triple set of precision watches). Unfortunately the press did not headline with
equal force "Whoops! We were wrong!" and instead left the impression
upon the public that Peary had been somehow proved to be a fraud.
A junior college librarian from nearby Maryland then joined the fray with an
encyclopedic sized book
about Cook.
This pretense to solving the polar controversy was greatly assisted
by the Cook Society, who supplied him with material, paid for research
(according to the records of their tax-exempt trust fund) and
otherwise encouraged his efforts. But the librarian found what history
had long known - that Cook was a fraud. Not just a little fraud, but a
colossal fraud. Cook, Bryce reveals, was a career criminal. A
compulsive liar, a con man, and a vindictive, manipulative
troublemaker.
But the public again thought that somehow Peary had been proved to
be a fraud. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Peary and
Henson did exactly what they claimed they did. But it may take a
lot of information on the Internet to make this fact accessible to
enough people. Those of us who know the facts and care about our
American history have begun to take the time and make the effort to do
this.
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For 50 years the author of every significant anti-Peary magazine
article or book has left a trail of correspondence
with Vetters, and/or Russell Gibbons. Their
Frederick A. Cook Society has served as a sort of
campfire attracting any literary oddball who shares
their anti-Peary, anti-establishment, and even
anti-National Geographic Society sentiments.
In the Ohio State University Cook Archives there are letters from Wally Herbert to Helene Vetters and Russell
Gibbons that reveal deep bonds in what seems to be an
"anti-establishment" philosophy. Wally Herbert retraced Cook's
1908 route as a training exercise in 1966 for his polar marathon. But
first he wrote numerous letters to Vetters proposing this route while
"fishing" for her funding.
Similar files were kept, and may be researched at the Ohio State
University, on Dennis Rawlins, Hugh Eames, Robert Bryce, etc., etc.
| "The extent of this conspiracy is
amazing. Vetters constantly helped and
encouraged these writers with everything from photos,
maps, cash, and publicity assistance for their book promotions." |
Here is an example. Wally Herbert almost grovels, in
his letters, hinting or asking directly for Vetters' cash, publicity, anything he can get.
Excerpt from:
Wally Herbert letter to Hugh Eames, 1971
(Eames is author of the anti-Peary book Winner Lose All)
"...most of the other books (polar controversy) on
the subject are out of print, and the general public could easily
be fooled that what you have to say has never before
been said....do not appear to have a chip on
your shoulder--but rather, let the reader form his own
conclusions...(the publisher may be hesitating)
because you have brought all your guns to bear on
Peary as though determined to rid the world once and
for all (of him)...this you should not try to do..."
[Yes, leave something about Peary for Wally to destroy
in his book!]
"...if it is merely a David and Goliath
situation--where you are determined to take on the
American "establishment" and fell it with one
well-timed book --beware!...I
would of course be delighted to review your manuscript
for the publisher (at a price proportionate to the
time spent on the work). I would expect the
publisher to pay my fee...You might let them know I am
prepared to do this."
Source: Ohio State Byrd Polar Archives
http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/arvweb/polar/cook/series/cser.htm
| 139-129-5 21 6
Herbert, Wally, 1966, 1968-1972; note: he was head
of the British Trans-Arctic Expedition. The
purpose of the expedition was to retrace Cook's
route from N. W. Greenland to the Northern tip of
Axel Heiberg Island; correspondence between H.
Levin and W. Herbert, re: the above expedition,
which Levin forwarded to H. Vetter; correspondence
between Herbert and others; clippings by or about
Herbert; H. Vetter's notes; excerpts from "Across
the Top of the World," Herbert's book, re: the
British Trans-Arctic Expedition; "In Amundsen's
Track on the Axel Heiberg Glacier," by Herbert,
and autographed by him to H. Vetter, 1966
(reprinted from Geographical Journal, vol. 129,
part 4, December, 1963 |
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