What about this book?

[Turtleguy9]

Aloha Sam
I just saw this book for sale on e-bay. Spearfishing & Skindiving on the Florida Reefs by Hope Root.
Yes I know the history about his fatal last dive. This seems to be an interesting book to aquire, but $300 starting bid?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

Is this book as rare as the owner thinks?

Thanks
Roger Turtleguy9

[crimediver]

Wow! I would like to have it, but too expensive for my wallet.
I will just have to wait until it comes out in paperback.

[21]

This is a very rare book! It also has great historical significance.

Hope Root was a Miami Beach attorney, pioneer diver dare devil. It was a time when the diving world was setting depth records, Zale Parry made 209 for the womens record, John Clarke Samazon also set a record-- all in California and all in controlled conditions.

Hope Root wanted to set a depth record --in Florida. It is reported he gathered up some cronies, a few photographers and went out into the gulf stream in Florida for his WR dive.

He strapped on a set of twin 38s jumped over the side and submerged into the blue Atlantic ocean--and down he went! He was last tracked on USN Sonar at 700 feet where he hesitated for a moment then continued on! Down he went!

You only can set a WR if you surface-alive - he never did -- nor was his body ever discovered. So no world record!

The very small book was self published in 1954 after his death reportedly by his mother. It has been rumored that there was a very limited number of books published, some think as many as 300 other as many as 500. Either number makes it a rare collectable, especially for the Floridian,the Spearfisherman and the diving biliophile.

It was advertised in SDM at a very reasonable price for some time which would lead one to believe that it was not a best seller--but that is certainly pure speculation.

I am fortunate to have a mint copy. I only know of my copy and the seller's whom I have been friends for probably 20 + years. The books are known by the bibliophile players but are just not avaliable on any bibliophile circuit--The book and the history "Romance" if you will allow that title, makes it a very desireable book to have as a braging book for a collector. It is not expensively bound but it is a hard cover; nor is it well written or an easy read which would also lead to speculation that it might have been published from his rough draft notes by his mother.

At a starting bid of $300.00 it is doubtfull that any one would at this time sacrifice it to convert it to a paper back. Sorry!

If the correct deep pocket collectors notice this book for sale it could possibly go as high as $450 or more-- if not it just might die on the vine.

So that is the "rest of the story" on Hope Root, his dive and his book!

This bibliophile thread is interesting isn't it?

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[21]

The Hope Root book-"Spearfishing and Skin Diving on the Florida Reefs," published in 1955, all 94 pages sold for $898.50, or about $9.50 a page.

I know all three bidders, they are heavey hitters big guns in the diving bibliophile area. All are very estute an know bibliophila and how to invest in the future.

Yes bibliophilia can be a money pit, but there are still a number of great bargins still out there. So keep on looking


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[seahawk2010]

I have a copy that I would like to sell. It is a wonderful description of the world of divers back in the 1950's. My father was a pioneer diver in the late 1950's and he had a copy in his collection.....

Tom Warnke
561-236-0155

[21]

[quote="seahawk2010"]I have a copy (Hope Root) that I would like to sell. It is a wonderful description of the world of divers back in the 1950's. My father was a pioneer diver in the late 1950's and he had a copy in his collection.....

Tom Warnke
561-236-0155[/quote]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom,
A rare on ideed...the 4th copy known to the bibliophile world
It had a very poor binding --how is your book?
in Bibliophilia it is author, title, age and condition, condition and condition..

Suggest;
E bay-- who knows? place a high reserve

Ron Mullins-- has been collecting spear fishing history for years

Spear boards- have your price established..They are as a rule not too savey on books.

Phil Nueton-- he likes to collect and probably does't have a copy..I would be very surprised if he does.

Scuba boards..mostly rank beginners with no money.

Asking price ? $500.00 or more

Respond when you sell it and to whom you sold the book and HOW MUCH!

[21]

Some additional Information on Hope Root and his dive from an old friend who does not want to be identified

"Ahoy Sam, I saw your post on the Double Hose Website.

You have written about this a few times,so let me add my 2 cents from
my library and recent conversations with Jordan Klein who's 38' dive
boat the "Arbalete" Root dove from that faithful day,most of what you
write is correct...Hope Root was a New York Lawyer originally who
moved his practice to Florida after being bitten by the Scuba Bug in the early 50s and actually did practice dives to 350+the summer of 1953,in December of 1953 he did fatal"Record Dive." the 2 photographers you mention were Jordan Klein(who received an Academy Award for his contributions of Underwater Motion Photography to the Motion Picture industry a few years ago)check you early SDM for Mako underwater housings and compressors and Jerry Greenberg still
diving,and recently started using digital cameras,Jerry has a small
publishing company called Sea-Hawk Press(named after his early
Sea-Hawk Underwater Camera housings(see your early SDM's) his book
"Manfish with a Camera" SeaHawk Press 1971(no longer in print)is about
Jerry's first 20 years of under photography has on pages 13-14 the
last images of Mr Root on deck moments before his ill-fated dive an underwater image and a sonar tracing And a brief description of the photos,(BTW he is using a set of twin 72 CF cylinders, Life Magazine ran a picture story titled "The Last Dive" using both Jordan and Jerry's images shortly after this dive, I don't have the issue's date.

I received my copy of Hope Root's book in the early 60s in Miami from
a diveshop called Diving Corporation of America(formerly Paul Arnold's
Aqua-Lung Inc.)they had a stack of the books in The back room and the
owner at the time handed me a handful of them to give to my buddies in the Navy back in Key West."

Note; the boat was 38 foot and the tanks were 72s..
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[21]

LIFE MAGAZINE

December 14,1953

The Challenge
(aka; Hope Root dive)

A drunkenness known as nitrogen narcosis is a factor of diving physiology. The first stage is a mild anesthesia, a gaseous attack on the central nervous system. It destroys the instinct for life.

—from The Silent World,

by Captain J. Y. Cousteau

All of his life, Hope Root loved the sea. A vigorous, barrel-chested (5 ft. 5 in., 170 lbs.) Miami lawyer, Root spent his spare time in or on the water, fishing, boating and swimming. Three years ago he discovered the new sport of skin diving with an Aqua-Lung. He discovered the thrill of plunging into the dark depths without the clumsy encumbrance of a diving suit, using only a mouthpiece breathing apparatus to equalize the tremendous pressures of the ocean's silent world. Unlike Captain Cousteau, who brought the silent world on to the printed page in a 1953 bestseller (TIME, Feb. 9) Root often said that he had never suffered from the nitrogen narcosis which Cousteau calls also "the rapture of the depths."

The rapture of the depths is much like the mountain climber's euphoria, the exuberant dizziness that blinds the climber to danger when the supply of blood oxygen gets thin. Divers fear narcosis. One came back from a record 306 ft. down, and lived to tell about it. Another, Maurice Fargues, plunged down to 396 ft., scribbled his name on a marker, and was pulled to the surface drowned, his Aqua-Lung mouthpiece dangling uselessly. Miami's Skin Diver Root determined to learn more. Why take the risks? Said 52-year-old Diver Root: "I'm going to dive for the same reason people climb high mountains. It's a challenge."

"It's Bad Down There." Root's plans for an assault on the record last week were carefully detailed. Three well-equipped boats bobbed around like corks in the turbulent Gulf Stream off Miami at the 100-fathom mark. One boat carried Root and seven other skin-diving friends who planned to station themselves at various depths along the 1/16 -in steel strand that marked the descent. Standing by for possible rescue work was a Coast Guard cutter. In the third boat was an oceanographer of the University of Miami's marine laboratories.The oceanographer would trace Root's descent with echo sounding gear, just to make the record official. As an unofficial measure. Root planned to pull a marker off the cable at 430 ft.: "That's the one I'll have to get."

The red small-craft storm-warning flags were being whipped by 25-knot gusts when one of the divers went over the side to test conditions several fathoms down. His report: "It's bad down there. I had a hell of a time getting back." Root was urged to postpone his descent. Placidly munching cookies and drinking coffee while almost everybody else, was seasick, Root refused to change his plans: "No, I'm itchy about it now. And the more you wait, the more static builds up. It won't be rough down below."

"It's Time to Get Going." Then Root strapped on his 65 lbs. of equipment: oversize rubber foot flippers, two cylinders with enough oxygen (under 2,200 lbs. pressure) to last 25 minutes at 400 ft., and two lead weights, a six-pounder to neutralize his own buoyancy, a three-pounder to aid the descent. Then, with a cheery "It's time I got going," Root donned his face mask and slipped over the side.

Down he went, past 33 ft., where the pressure on a man's body is already double, past the 50-ft. mark, where he paused to equalize pressure.* After the 130-ft. mark, the echo sounder's moving stylus etched the tale of Root's dive. After seven minutes, all according to plan, the stylus traced a steady echo at a new record dive: 400 ft. Root stayed there for three minutes. Then, almost abruptly, the echo recorded 450 ft.—beyond the limit of the anchor-weighted steel cable. Two minutes later Root passed the 550-ft. mark — and the echo sounder's readings became too weak to be recorded any longer. The search lasted until dusk. When the cable was pulled up, it had part of the story: Root had failed to detach his weights, as planned, failed to pull off a single depth marker on his descent.

Why? Challenger Root took the secret with him down into the silent world.

* And where LIFE Photographer Peter Stackpole waited to take his picture with an underwater camera.