Only time will determine if any of hundreds of publications
written by, and ghost written for, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, will become true
classics. Certainly THE SILENT WORLD will be there, as will THE LIVING
SEA, but of the many others, who can tell. Viewers comments on this would
be interesting.
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THE SILENT WORLD. Captain
J.Y. Cousteau with Frederic Dumas.
First publiished in Great Britain, 1953, Hamish Hamilton,
London. (It went through at least seven impressions in its first year -
thats shows either a remarkable acceptance or bad planning - no doubt both).
Hardcover, dust jacket, 148 pages, mono plates throughout, sixteen colour
plates (from National Geographic). Was this book the making of Cousteau?
Of course not, but it helped to consolidate his place in the public mind
as a remarkable pioneer of diving. I have heard ot said that it should
be prescribed reading for all divers but frankly, I find Cousteau had to
read - but then I find Cousteau hard to bear - but thats just me. Perhaps
its because he is just so damned skinny!!! There is nothing about
the historic development of scuba (is Gagnan even mentioned?), centering
rather on the diving exploits of the French Navy's Underwater Research
Group and the Calypso. It is however an important work as it was perhaps
the first ‘popular' book to bring attention of the general public to the
underwater world.
[ps-top]
Paperback
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THE LIVING SEA.
Captain J.Y. Cousteau with James Dugan.
First published in Great Britain in 1963, Hamish Hamilton
Ltd, London.
Hardcover, dustjacket, 212 pages, 56 mono plates, 24
colour plates.
The author...' describes the rich and exciting progress
made in exploring life under water by the numerous scinetific expeditions
which he has conducted...' In some respects it is a continuation of The
Silent World which he published ten years earlier.
[pjs]
Note also other publishers: Viking Penguin, Penguin Books
Australi, Penguin Books Limited, Penguin Books, Canada, Penguin Books (New
Zealnd).
Bottom:
Edition published by Elm Tree Books, London, 1988. ISBN
0-241-12592-8.
Hardcover, dustjacket, 301 pages, mono prints, assembled
in one section.
[pjs]
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CAPTAIN COUSTEAU'S UNDERWATER TREASURY.
Edited by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and James Dungan
First published in Great britain in 1960, Hamish hamilton,
London.
Hardcover, dust jacket, 356 pages, several sections of
mono plates.
This really is a great book as it contains no less than
sixty-three excellent chapters each by a different author, on their specialist
subject - Guy Gilptarick, the ‘Compleat Goggler', J.B.S.Haldane, Tailliez,
Diole, Dugan, and Dumas; Sir Robert Davis, Peter Keeble, Eugenie
Clark, Harry Grossett, Folco Quilici - evn our Noel Monkman gets a guernsey.
To bring these and many other superb authors together in the one volume
is to create an armcchair diver's paradise.
Top is (probably) British edition. [ps]
Bottom is (probably) USA edition. |
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THE COUSTEAU ALMANAC
An Inventory of Life on Our Water Planet.
Doubleday & Co. New York, 1981.
Hardcove, dustjacket, a huge 838 pages, mono prints,
charts, drawings.
Seems to cover the many environmental issues relvant
to the "water planet". A most interesting book and one that many furture
gnerations hence will look back and say, 'why didn't they take notice'.
[ps] |
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Jacques-Yves Cousteau's WORLD WITHOUT SUN
Edited by James Dugan.
William Heinemann Ltd, London, Melbourne etc.
First published 1965. English translattion copyright
William Heinemann.
Hardcover, 204 pages, coiously illustrated with mono
and colour photographs, no index.
More of a picture book of the Cousteau adventures.
From the fly blurb:
In World Without Sun Captain Cousteau describes and illustrates
how he and members of his team lived for a month in the depths of the Red
Sea in a speci- ally designed house. There are fascinat- ing extracts from
the diaries they kept telling how this strange existence affected them,
and vivid pictures of the under-sea phenomena, including giant sharks and
monsters, which they , observed. The reader is plunged into surroundings
of fantastic beauty, not at all remote in geographjcal terms and yet as
unknown as the most distant stars. The outstanding photographs transport
him to the last unexplored areas of our own planet, which are probably
richer than all the others. Illustrated with 102 coloured and 140 black
and white photographs
[pjs-bottom]
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More to come......
BOOKS ON JACQUES COUSTEAU
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UNDERSEA EXPLORER
The Story of Captain Cousteau. Adventures of the Famous
Aqua-Lung Diver and His Undersea Expeditions.
by James Dugan.
First published in Great Britain, 1957, by Hamish Hamilton
Ltd, London.
Hardcover, dust jacket, 125 pages, mono prints, colour
plates.
"Here is the true story, stranger than Jules Verne, of
the undersea explorer who has thrilled the world with his discoveries."
[ps] |
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