Background

Ethnicity: On his mother's side, he was descended from an old New Jersey family, the Comptons.

Fred James Cook was born on March 8, 1911, in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, United States.

Education

Cook was a graduate of Rutgers University, where he earned his Bachelor of Letters in 1932.

Career

During the 1930s, Cook embarked on a journalism career, working as a reporter and later editor for the Asbury Park Press, then as an editor for the New Jersey Courier. While editor of the weekly New Jersey Courier, he covered the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. It was during his stint as a rewrite man for the New York World-Telegram and Sun in the 1940s and 1950s that Cook became disenchanted by what he felt were distortions in news reporting, so he became a freelance writer in 1959.

Cook turned his investigations into articles and books, including The FBI Nobody Knows (1964), The Secret Rulers: Criminal Syndicates and How They Control the U.S. Underworld (1966), The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy (1971), American Political Bosses and Machines (1973), and The Great Energy Scam: Private Billions vs. Public Good (1982).

Cook adapted his research for a younger audience as well, producing such juvenile biographies as Franklin D. Roosevelt: Valiant Leader (1969), and books on American government for young adults, including Golden Book of the American Revolution (1959) and American Political Parties (1971). His last book was the 1984 autobiography Maverick: Fifty Years of Investigative Reporting.

Achievements

• Fred James Cook was a well-known investigative reporter who wrote revealing exposés on crime and corruption in federal agencies and large corporations. His writing was aimed at exposing lies and cover-ups by government agencies, such as the FBI and CIA, the military, big businesses such as oil companies, and organized crime.
  
  His books on political topics included The Unfinished Story of Alger Hiss, The FBI Nobody Knows, Barry Goldwater: Extremist of the Right, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Ku Klux Klan: America's Recurring Nightmare, and The Crimes of Watergate.
  
  Cook received several journalism awards for his work, including four Page One Awards from the New York Newspaper Guild and a Sidney Hillman Award.

Works

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  • The Unfinished Story of Alger Hiss

    (A very interesting investigation authored by a 1950s-era ...)

    1958
  • The Great Energy Scam: Private Billions Vs. Public Good

    (Argues that the oil companies have an inordinate influenc...)

    1982
  • The Crimes of Watergate

    (Told in a fast-paced, journalistic style, this account co...)

    1981
  • The Ku Klux Klan: America's Recurring Nightmare

    (Reviews the record of the Klan's periodic fading and resu...)

    1980
  • Privateers of '76

    (Discusses the role of privateers in the American Revoluti...)

    1976
  • Mob, Inc.

    (A history of organized crime in the United States recount...)

    1977
  • The FBI Nobody Knows

    (Passionately concerned with the state of the Republic and...)

    1964
  • The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy

    (Recreates the life of the controversial senator, focusing...)

    1971
  • Maverick: Fifty Years of Investigative Reporting

    (Discusses the changes that would occur in public and priv...)

    1984
  • American Political Bosses and Machines

    (Mark Hanna, Frank Hague, and John V. Kenny are among the ...)

    1973
  • The Secret Rulers: Criminal Syndicates and How They Control the United States Underworld 1966
  • The Warfare State 1962
  • The Corrupted Land 1966
  • The Army-McCarthy Hearings, April–June, 1954: A Senator Creates a Sensation Hunting Communists 1971
  • Julia's Story 1976
  • A Two Dollar Bet Means Murder 1961
  • Storm Before Dawn 1978
  • The Muckrakers: Crusading Journalists Who Changed America 1972

Politics

Though conservative in many respects, Cook often took positions usually identified with the left. For instance, he opposed the death penalty, taking the position that it was cruel and didn't deter crime. He was also highly critical of the FBI, the CIA, and the Alger Hiss perjury conviction, as well as oil companies and defense contractors.

It's also worth noting, that, in 1968, Cook signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

Personality

Cook's 1964 book, Barry Goldwater: Extremist on the Right, led to a Supreme Court case that later became known as the Red Lion case. Cook was accused of slanted reporting by Billy James Hargis on the radio program Christian Crusade, and as a result, Cook demanded the right to broadcast a rebuttal. One of the stations that was to make the broadcast, WGCB in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, sued the FCC, saying that being forced to broadcast Cook's rebuttal was a violation of the station's free speech right to determine for itself which programs it aired. The United States Supreme Court, however, ruled against WGCB, saying that free speech takes second place to the public's right to know all sides of an issue.

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (Volume 217) brings researchers the most recent data on the world's most popular authors.
  2011