Fred J. Cook was a longtime staff writer for the New York World Telegram and Sun. Called by Studs Terkel "the finest investigative reporter in the land," Cook was the author of 45 books, including The Nightmare Decade (Random House, 1971), about the life and times of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and "The FBI Nobody Knows" (MacMillan, 1964), a critical look at the bureau's history under the directorship of J. Edgar Hoover. His book on the Hiss case, "The Unfinished Story of Alger Hiss" (Morrow, 1957), was one of the first to revisit the case and new arguments for Hiss's innocence.
Cook was a longtime newspaper reporter for the New York World Telegram & Sun.