Fred J. Cook
Fred J. Cook | |
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Heywood Broun Award[3] |
Fred James Cook (March 8, 1911 – April 4, 2003) was an American investigative journalist, author and historian who has been published extensively in The Nation, the Asbury Park Press and The New York Times. He wrote from a contemporary perspective about the Hindenburg disaster, Alger Hiss, the FBI, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Barry Goldwater, the Watergate scandal, the Mafia, the Ku Klux Klan, political bosses and healthcare in the United States. He has also written about historic events such as the American Revolutionary War, P.T. Barnum, the Pinkertons and Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1967, Cook successfully sued the religious broadcaster
He is the author of 45 books and a winner of the
Early life
Cook was born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and grew up in a house on Bay Avenue near the border with Bay Head. On his mother's side, he was descended from an old New Jersey family, the Comptons. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1932.[4]
Career
Cook began his career in journalism first as a rewrite man[5] and then as a reporter for the Asbury Park Press.[6] He later wrote for the New York World-Telegram, focusing on crime reporting. He uncovered the confession of John Francis Roche in the murder case of Navy sailor Edward S. Bates, which freed Paul A. Pfeffer, who had been convicted of the murder.[7]
While editor of the weekly New Jersey Courier in
Memos to Cook during this period of his career from Gene Gleason and other reporters "on the Title I scandals of the 1950s" were an important source to Robert Caro's famous biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker.[10]
Though conservative in many respects[
For The New York Times, Cook wrote about spending time inside Sing Sing state prison,[12] militant community organizers in Newark,[13] and environmental catastrophes in other parts of New Jersey.[14][15] He also wrote an Op-Ed about the 1979 oil crisis for The Washington Post that provoked a response from a senior director at the American Petroleum Institute.[16] He has also written about the American Revolutionary War and the La Amistad slave ship rebellion for American Heritage magazine.[17]
In 1968, Cook signed the "
Awards he has received include the
Cook and Alger Hiss
Cook had written four articles for The Nation when editor Carey McWilliams asked him to write an article about the perjury case of Alger Hiss. Cook did not want to do the article, thinking Hiss was "guilty as hell." After two more requests by McWilliams for Cook to do the article, McWilliams said, "Look, I have a proposition to make you. I know how you feel about the case, but I've talked to a lot of people who I trust. They say if anybody looked hard at the evidence they'd have a different opinion. You're known as a fact man. Will you do this for me? No obligation. Will you at least look at the facts?" Cook decided that, as a good journalist, he was obligated to look at the facts and see where they took him.
The September 21, 1957 issue of The Nation was dedicated entirely to Cook's investigation of the Hiss case, which was called, "Hiss: New Perspectives on the Strangest Case of our Time." In the article Cook wrote for The Nation, he ultimately was of the opinion that Hiss was not guilty of the accusations made by
Cook expanded the article into a book entitled, The Unfinished Story of Alger Hiss (Morrow, 1957) and to the end of his life continued to maintain that Hiss had been innocent. In an interview he gave at the age of 89 Cook observed:
And as a matter of fact, I don't think the book was ever challenged. If I had made some grievous error, they would have been down on my head right away, but it didn't happen. That said to me that I was pretty damned accurate. And everything I saw in the FBI documents in the 1970s just confirmed that I was right.[20]
Scandal
Cook and Gleason were fired by the World-Telegram in 1959 after writing an issue-length expose, "The Shame of New York", for The Nation. The men appeared on
Supreme Court case
Cook's 1964 book, Goldwater: Extremist on the Right, initiated a series of events which in the end led to the
Personal life
Cook's first wife Julia died from complications from taking
Cook died at the age of 92 at his home in Interlaken, New Jersey, on April 4, 2003.[28]
Works
This is an incomplete list that doesn't include all the nonfiction written for children and young adults, his fiction and his works published in magazines and newspapers.[29]
- "Hiss: New Perspectives On The Strangest Case Of Our Time", The Nation, September 21,1957
- "The Unfinished Story of Alger Hiss", Morrow, 1958.
- "What Manner of Men: Forgotten Heroes of the Revolution", Morrow, 1959.
- "Rallying a Free People: Theodore Roosevelt", Kingston House, 1961.
- "Entertaining the world P. T. Barnum", Encyclopaedia Britannica Press, 1962
- "The Warfare State," Macmillan, 1962.
- "The FBI Nobody Knows", Macmillan, 1964. Excerpt in True, the Men's Magazine.
- "Barry Goldwater: Extremist of the Right", Grove, 1964.
- "The Corrupted Land: The Social Morality of Modern Americans", Macmillan, 1966.
- "The Secret Rulers: Criminal Syndicates and How They Control the U.S. Underworld", Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1966.
- "The Plot against the Patient", Prentice-Hall, 1967.
- "What So Proudly We Hailed", Prentice-Hall, 1968.
- "The New Jersey Colony", Crowell-Collier Press, 1969.
- "The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy", Random House, 1971.
- "The Army-McCarthy Hearings, April–June, 1954: A Senator Creates a Sensation Hunting Communists", Franklin Watts, 1971.
- "The Rise of American Political Parties", Franklin Watts, 1971.
- "The Cuban Missile Crisis, October, 1962: The U.S. and Russia Face a Nuclear Showdown", Franklin Watts, 1972.
- "The Muckrakers: Crusading Journalists Who Changed America", Doubleday, 1972.
- "The U-2 Incident, May, 1960: An American Spy Plane Downed over Russia Intensifies the Cold War", Franklin Watts, 1973.
- "Dawn over Saratoga: The Turning Point of the Revolutionary War", Doubleday, 1973.
- "Mafia", Fawcett, 1973.
- "American Political Bosses and Machines", Franklin Watts, 1973.
- "The Pinkertons", Doubleday, 1974.
- "Lobbying in American Politics", Franklin Watts, 1976.
- "Privateers of `76", illustrated by William L. Verrill, Jr., Bobbs-Merrill, 1976.
- "Julia's Story: The Tragedy of an Unnecessary Death", Holt, 1976.[27]
- "Mob, Inc.", Franklin Watts, 1977.
- "City Cop: The True Story of a Young Cop's First Years on the Force", Doubleday, 1979
- "The Ku Klux Klan: America's Recurring Nightmare", Messner, 1980.
- "The Crimes of Watergate", Franklin Watts, 1981.
- "The Great Energy Scam: Private Billions vs. Public Good", Macmillan, 1982.
- "Maverick: Fifty Years of Investigative Reporting" (autobiography), introduction by Studs Terkel, Putnam, 1984.
References
- ^ Carlson, Michael (2003-05-09). "Fred J. Cook". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-03-21. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ^ Terkel, Studs (July 27, 1971). "Studs discusses McCarthyism with journalist Fred J. Cook" (WAV). The WFMT Studs Terkel Radio Archive (Radio Broadcast). The Chicago History Museum. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ^ Cook, Fred J. Maverick: Fifty Years of Investigative Reporting. Putnam: 1984.
- ISBN 978-0-394-48076-3.
- ^ Fred J. Cook, journalist, questioned theory on JFK death. Obituary, The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ) - April 7, 2003.
- ^ Cook, Fred J. "Capital Punishment: Does it Prevent Crime?" The Nation, 10 March 1956.
- ^ “Cook was classic old-time journalist “Ocean County Observer (Toms River, NJ) April 27, 2003
- ^ Moore, Kirk. “OH, THE HUMANITY': On May 6, 1937, world's largest aircraft burst into flames at Lakehurst, killing 36. Asbury Park Press (Neptune, NJ) May 5, 2002 Subscription required database
- ^ Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (New York: History Book Club, 2006), p. 1168 (originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1974).
- ^ Cook, Fred J. "On Being an Enemy of the FBI". The Nation, 22 March 1986.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ^ Murphy, Edward H. (August 12, 1979). "The Gasoline Crisis Was No Fraud". Washington Post.
- ^ Cook, Fred J. "Author Page". American Heritage. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ^ "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 New York Post
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ^ Kisseloff, Jeff. "The Alger Hiss Story » Fred J. Cook (2000)". Archived from the original on 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ^ Fred J. Cook, Maverick: Fifty Years of Investigative Reporting, Putnam, 1984, pp. 299-305.
- ^ David Anderson and Peter Benjaminson, Investigative Reporting, Indiana University Press, 1976, pp. 260-284.
- ISBN 978-0-253-20196-6.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ^ a b Lavietes, Stuart. “Fred J. Cook, 92, the Author of 45 Books, Many Exposes”, The New York Times obituary, p.54, May 4, 2003
- ^ Joyce, Tom. "His call for a reply set up historic broadcast ruling. Fred J. Cook, whose book was attacked on Red Lion radio station WGCB in 1964, died recently at age 92." York Daily Record (PA), May 6, 2003
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ^ Lavietes, Stuart. "Fred J. Cook, 92, the Author of 45 Books, Many Exposés", The New York Times, May 4, 2003. Accessed January 24, 2023. "Fred J. Cook, a freelance investigative reporter who wrote exposés of the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and American corporations and who was involved in a landmark Supreme Court case affirming the regulation that broadcasters must serve the public interest, died on April 4 at his home in Interlaken, N.J. He was 92."
- ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2004. Subscription required database. Accessed August 24, 2007.
External links
- Obituary in The New York Times, May 4, 2003
- Obituary in The Independent, May 9, 2003
- Fred J. Cook Papers: An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University
Media
- Studs Terkel discusses investigative journalism with author Fred J. Cook at Studs Terkel Radio Archive. Broadcast: May 13, 1966.
- Studs discusses McCarthyism with journalist Fred J. Cook at Studs Terkel Radio Archive. Broadcast: Jul. 27, 1971.