DIVE BOOKS OF SIR AUTHUR C CLARKE

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Sir Authur C CLARKE

Was a very active recreational diver during the infancy of SCUBA diving.
He published eight (8) books in eleven years they are as follows:

1955 Coast of coral
1956 Reefs of Taprobane
1958 Boy beneath the sea
1960 Challenge of the sea
1960 First five fathoms
1961 Indian Ocean adventure
1964 The treasure of the great reef
1964 Indian Ocean treasure

During his early of years exploring/diving and publishing I had numerous correspondence exchanges with Sir Arthur. I have been fortunate to have his complete production of diving books all of which Sir Authur personally inscribed to me. Possibly the only inscribed full set in the US and possibly one of the few inscribed sets in the world.

I published an article about Sir Authur and his diving books in my Times Press Recorder news paper column "Dive Bubbles" which appeared in the May 30, 2001 edition-- You might possibly find the article in the news paper's archives. It should be noted Dive Bubbles was the first regularly scheduled and dedicated dive column in any Us news paper according to the editor.

One can only speculate how many great diving books Sir Authur would have produced if he had continued his interest in the underwater world rather that outer space

SDM

[DaleC]

Thank you Dr. Sam, more titles for my hunting list. Are those books HC and which genre would they be, fiction, non fiction, travelogue etc...?
Am gone for a couple of days but look forward to more details.

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My copies are all hard cover with dust jackets. I suspect some were printed in soft cover. I made a quick run through ebay and half .com - none were listed. As we predicted at the first US Diving bibliophile meeting almost 20 years ago their were so very few dive books printed and so few on the market that the dive books would disappear..and apparently they have

They are all dive adventure related

Canada (or is it C-eh? N-eh,D-eh???--My dear wife is a Canadaian) and the diving world is indeed fortunate to have an individual such as you who is seaching out and finding these already rare volumes--soon there will be none remaining.

Keep searching!

SDM

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This AM I happened to accidently turn to the local science channel - a program about Sir Arthur Clarke was playing.

The name of the program was "Prophets of science fiction; Arthur C Clarke." Hopefully it will play again and I can record it. If anyone has a recording of the program please PM me

First portion was about Sir Arthur's fascination with diving, his travels and eventually moving to Sur Lanka in 1956, where he established a diving company, documented his adventures in his books. Lots of vintage basic dive equipment--FMS, tank & regulator... bathing suit..no wet suits, no flotation, no dive flag, no certification...Oh the horror of it all!

Several scientist commented about him being a true English gentleman who was interested in all things and all people and enjoyed discussions about things he was interested..I can only assume that is why we had correspondence exchanges and he sent me all the signed books plates.

After all these good years I still and will always cherish his letters to me

Sad for diving history and the world we lost him in 2008 at age 90,

SDM

[Drado]

Hi Dr. Miller, was it this episode?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPIdmvllK7w[/youtube]

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Thank You!
And all the way from Minila!

That is the program...I came in right as the anouncer was talking about Sir Arthur's diving ..I thought I had missed so much. Probably aboutm 20 to 30 seconds

Diving portion begins at #19:04 and ends at #20:55-Not much on diving
~~~~ NO! don't need a copy!~~~~

Thanks again,

SDM