John Edward Weems

John Edward “Eddie” Weems was a historian, author, and journalist born in Grand Prairie, TX in 1924. He had a prolific career as a writer and published many books and articles about Texas and Southwest history.

Perhaps Weems’ best known work is Peary: The Explorer and the Man and is “considered to be a definitive study of the personal life of the first man to reach the North Pole,” due to Weems’ unprecedented access to Commander Robert Peary’s personal records, diaries, and letters, as well as the cooperation of Peary’s family.

Weems received Bachelors and Masters degrees in Journalism from the University of Texas in 1948 and 1949, respectively, and a Master of Arts degree in Library Science from Florida State University in 1954. Weems had a diverse career and served in the Navy, worked at several Texas newspapers, was an assistant professor in journalism at Baylor University, University of Alabama, and professor of English at Baylor University.

John Edward Weems died on September 22, 1999.

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Peary Or Cook: Who Discovered The North Pole?, April 1962 | Vol. 13, No. 3

Almost simultaneously two men claimed to have attained a goal that explorers had striven toward for centuries. There were strong hints that one of them was an impostor

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