New Cousteau Bio--by Brad Matsen

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"Jacques Cousteau; The Sea King"
by
Brad Matsen.

"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. ... developing<< with Emil Gagnon..from a modified Gasogen >>—and risking his life to test—the regulator that made scuba diving possible; running the world’s largest scuba equipment manufacturing firm; <<US DIvers>> 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.

The widowed Cousteau marrying his longtime mistress Francine —forty years his junior and the mother of two of his four children—kindling a bitter family feud that continues to this day. <<< Francine aka: The out of step, step mother >>>

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.


Brad Matsen is the author of Titanic's Last Secrets, Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss, and many other books about the sea and its inhabitants. "
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ed note:
Previous Cousteau biographies;

** Undersea Explorer; the story of Captain Cousteau --James Dugan 1957
James Dugan was his PR man: First of the men fish..etc

** Cousteau; Unauthorized biography - Axel Madsen, 1986
Probably the best bio. no holds barred

** Cousteau, the Captain and his world -a personal portrait-Richard Munson.1989
Rushed into publication glorify Cousteau and to negate Madsen's book

All must have must read if you are a Cousteau fan: Dugan, Madsen, Munson & Matsen....



Sam Miller

[Bryan]

I have been reading it and even though a couple of the chapters feel like they were taken directly from "The Silent World" there is a lot of information I had never heard. Some things you read about him make you believe he was a saint. Others that he was the devil himself and a real A-hole. This one seems a little sugar coated but there are definitely some sore spot that Matsen discusses at length. No matter how many times I read the account of Cousteau and Dumas almost dying in that weird freshwater spring in France from carbon monoxide poisoning I get the willies. I've never had a bout with carbon monoxide but have had the feeling of being too deep, too dark and a buddy that was having problems. I think just about everyone on this board would enjoy reading it.