In partnership and individually, they issued significant texts of English Renaissance drama, most notably of the plays of James Shirley.
Crooke tended more toward literature and general-interest works; he produced books like Sir Henry Blount's A Voyage to the Levant (1636), Richard Corbet's Certain Elegant Poems (1639), and John Bate's The Mysteries of Nature and Art (1635).
Cooke's shop was near Furnival's Inn Gate in Holborn; Crooke kept his at the sign of the Green Dragon in St. Paul's Churchyard.
Yet the partnership of Crooke and Cooke earned its greatest distinction in publishing first editions of plays, particularly those of James Shirley.
In 1659, Crooke partnered with stationer Henry Brome (his shop was at the sign of the Gun in Ivy Lane) to issue a volume of Richard Brome's dramas called Five New Plays;[5] the collection contained The English Moor, The Lovesick Court, The Weeding of Covent Garden, The New Academy, and The Queen and Concubine.
Crooke himself left no will when he died in the autumn of 1674; administration of his estate was granted to his widow, Elizabeth (d. in or after 1696), on 15 October of that year.