Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King
by Brad Matsen
List Price:
Our Price: $1.59
You Save: $26.36 (94%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Brad MatsenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-20
ISBN: 037542413X
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King
Book Review: Fascinating, entertaining, filled with revelations
Summary: 5 Stars
To cut to the chase, Sea King is a wonderful fast-paced, very entertaining read, a lively unauthorized, carefully researched biography of a 20th Century world icon, warts and all, skillfully told by arguably the best author on marine topics writing today (Matsen's two most recent books: Descent and Titanic's Last Secrets, both terrific). With Cousteau, the author had his work cut out. The man was a complex, formidable personality: inventor, self-taught scientist, filmmaker, adventurer, explorer, visionary, charmer, canny marketer, environmentalist, and celebrated world citizen. With his pitch-perfect narrative voice, Matsen delivers in spades, revealing Cousteau was also a bit of a con, self-absorbed, not a little sociopathic, a tireless ladies man (reportedly he slept with 10,000 women), and oh so French. He also had a secret life: a second family with a devoted mistress who bore him children and who following his death, emerged as the controversial controller of the Cousteau estate.
What surprised me is that Cousteau's life story is only now being told-amazing considering Cousteau's decades-long celebrity and profound impact on both scuba diving and the conservation movement. Matsen plunges in with gusto. It's all here: the invention of the double-stage regulator (replete with near fatal experiments), the breakthrough documentary The Silent World, behind-the-scenes tales of the Calypso voyages (groupies and all), the tragic death of Cousteau's son Philippe, Cousteau's quirky successful partnership with media mogul Ted Turner, the meteoric success of the Cousteau Society and its long messy public unraveling.
Great stuff, all of it. Matsen never gets in the way, steering an even-handed course, allowing the darker revelations and less-flattering aspects of the man speak for themselves. A bonus: the book's photos, many provided by family members and never before published, are excellent. Highest recommendation.
John Grissim, author of The Lost Treasure of the Concepcion and Pure Stoke
Summary of Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King
Jacques Cousteau opened up the undersea world as no one has done before or since. But not generally know is the fascinating and compelling individual behind the acclaimed television personality.With the cooperation of many of Jacques Cousteau?s collaborators, friends, and family, Brad Matsen gives us the first full picture of this remarkable life. Here is Cousteau working for the French resistance during World War II (for which he received France?s Croix de Guerre); developing?and risking his life to test?the regulator that made scuba diving possible; running the world?s largest scuba equipment manufacturing firm; becoming a legendary catalyst of the worldwide environmental movement; starring in The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and in hundreds of documentaries; and publishing more than fifty books. And here is the widowed Cousteau marrying his longtime mistress?forty years his junior and the mother of two of his children?kindling a bitter family feud that continues to this day.
Vividly conveying the people, the adventure, the science, and the lure of the sea that shaped Cousteau?s life, Matsen paints a luminous portrait of a man who profoundly changed the way we view, and treat, our planet.
Scientists Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Scientists Books
Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Scienceby Thomas Levenson
Oxford Univ Pr (Txt); Published: 1997-10; Hardcover; Book
The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plantsby Jane S. Smith
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-02-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.46
Price in other shops:
Don't You Have Time to Thinkby Richard P Feynman
Penguin; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Science at the Extreme: Scientists on the Cutting Edge of Discoveryby Peter Lane Taylor
McGraw-Hill Companies; Published: 2000-08-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.15
Price in other shops:
Enigmas of Chance: An Autobiography (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation series)by Mark Kac
Harpercollins; Published: 1985-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $125.00
Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earthby Andrew Smith
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.60
Price in other shops:
Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic (Cambridge Concise Histories)by Anita Burdman Feferman, Solomon Feferman
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2008-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.97
Price in other shops:
The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynmanby Jagdish Mehra
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1994-03-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $157.74
For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronautby Scott Carpenter, Kris Stoever
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2003-01-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.18
Price in other shops:
Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mirby Jerry M. Linenger
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2000-12-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Encyclopedia of the Seaby Richard Ellis
Knopf; Published: 2000-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.75
Price in other shops:
Jacques Cousteau - Pacific ExplorationsWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-07-26; DVD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
Deco for Diversby Mark Powell
Aquapress; Published: 2008-10-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $33.24
Jacques Cousteau's Voyage to the Edge of the WorldMusic Video Dist; Release date: 2009-08-11; DVD
Best price: $9.95
Jacque Cousteau - The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey - The Complete SeriesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-04-19; DVD
Best price: $41.97
Price in other shops:
The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural Worldby Jacques Cousteau, Susan Schiefelbein
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2007-10-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.23
Price in other shops:
My Father, the Captain: My Life With Jacques Cousteauby Jean-Michel Cousteau, Daniel Paisner
National Geographic; National Geographic; Published: 2010-05-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.58
Price in other shops:
My Father, the Captain: My Life With Jacques Cousteauby Jean-Michel Cousteau, Daniel Paisner
National Geographic; Published: 2010-05-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.15
Price in other shops:
Silent World (National Geographic Adventure Classics)by Jacques Cousteau
National Geographic; Published: 2004-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
Sterling Biographies: Jacques Cousteau: A Life Under the Seaby Kathleen Olmstead
Sterling; Published: 2008-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.26
Price in other shops: