author

Ezra A. (Ezra Asher) Cook

1841–1911

A Chicago publisher and polemicist, he wrote blunt, highly partisan books aimed at exposing secret societies and the Ku Klux Klan. His work offers a vivid glimpse of the religious and political battles that shaped reform literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

1 Audiobook

Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed Attitude toward Jews, Catholics, Foreigners and Masons. Fraudulent Methods Used. Atrocities Committed in Name of Order.

Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed Attitude toward Jews, Catholics, Foreigners and Masons. Fraudulent Methods Used. Atrocities Committed in Name of Order.

by Ezra A. (Ezra Asher) Cook

About the author

Born in 1841 and buried in Wheaton, Illinois, he was an American writer and publisher best known for books attacking secret societies and fraternal orders. Records and library listings connect him with Chicago publishing, and his name appears on works such as Secret Societies Illustrated and Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed.

His writing was direct and openly argumentative rather than literary in the usual sense. Much of it focused on exposing the rituals, structure, and influence of organizations he opposed, especially Freemasonry, and later on criticizing the revived Ku Klux Klan.

Because the surviving sources are mostly catalogs, scans, and reference pages, only a limited biographical picture is easy to confirm. Even so, his books remain useful to readers interested in the fierce reform movements, religious activism, and anti-secret-society campaigns of his era.