Le Prieur; Premier de Plongee, 1956

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"Commandant Le Prieur; Premier de Plongee," 1956, EDITIONS EMPIRE FRANCE, 263 pages plus indexes...
A most interesting book, even if it is in French

The book contains a number of pictures of his 1920s/1930s breathing apparatus invention predates JYC well over a decade and a half.

The unit was the first to use compressed air but did not have the demand principle of the 1860s R&D unit, which Emile Gagnon was using for his "Gas O gen" which he and JYC modified to develop the "Aqua lung" in the early 1940s.

Years before JYC entered the UW world Le Prieur established a Paris diving school in the 1930s, had outings to the ocean, developed a workable UW camera, a spear gun, ( also pictured in The Compleat Goggler.)

Commandant Yves Le Prieur has all but been forgotten by the modern obsessed Cousteau generation, yet Le Prieur was the true pioneer of modern recreational SCUBA diving -

My original copy was "acquired" by a raid on my library by Mexican based Frenchman and it has taken me many years to locate another copy on the international E bay market. It is indeed a rare book, but on rare occasions can be located and purchased for "mucho dinero" ( a lot of money $$$$) but worth it to those who want to research pre Cousteau diving....

It would be an educational eye opener!

SDM
(Dale You will probably find one for a loney at the thrift store! - the luck of Irish? Nope the luck of God's Frozen People (GFPs!)sdm

[eskimo3883]

I have picked up this book and quite a few of the early French spear fishing books just using eBay-France and Google translated notes. Usually my poorly translated notes come back with replies in English. I search Ebay using the author name gathered from some very good book lists. My only secret to a low price is to wait and buy it from a non-collector. I believe I have every spear fishing book published before 1950 and most were less than 25 USD. Postage is another thing. If they agree to ship with out a signature it's pretty cheap and slow. If not shipping is fairly high. The most expensive of the early books is Cousteau's first one. I have never seen it less than about 300 USD. Even this seems too cheap considering the low printing.

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I have an interest in the early French (and any other) Spearfishing books.

Could you make a list and post the titles?
Perhaps a new thread?
SDM

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[quote="eskimo3883"]
I have picked up this book and quite a few of the early French spear fishing books just using eBay-France and Google translated notes. Usually my poorly translated notes come back with replies in English. I search Ebay using the author name gathered from some very good book lists. My only secret to a low price is to wait and buy it from a non-collector. I believe I have every spear fishing book published before 1950 and most were less than 25 USD. Postage is another thing. If they agree to ship with out a signature it's pretty cheap and slow. If not shipping is fairly high. The most expensive of the early books is Cousteau's first one. I have never seen it less than about 300 USD. Even this seems too cheap considering the low printing.
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I have a presentable collection of the majority of American Spear fishing books,(many personally inscribed) some english,(one inscribed) a few Aussie, (several inscribed) and a number German spear fishing books, but only a few French spear fishing books that I happened to pick up while visiting Paris.

I have been in spear fishing for well over one half of a century, I am possibly the only one on this board who established a spear fishing record (1962??) and in the year 2000 I along with about 50 other spear fisherman who traveled from the four corners of the world to meet and be honored in a huge two day event as "A father of free diving and spear fishing."

Therefore, I am very interested in your list of vintage French Spear Fishing books. Since you have "quite a few of of the early French spear fishing books" I and I suspect others would be interested but I would question if I or others on this board would be much competition in your collecting.

Therefore, why don't you take a few moments, make a list, title, author & ISBN # if issued? of your French spear fishing books?

In the spirit of this board in sharing the list would be welcomed as another great asset of Vintage Double Hose board.

SDM

[eskimo3883]

Hi,
I stole a very good list from a French web page. The web page was in french but very well done. i have yet to find an early work they missed. I will either show the origiginal web page of my copy shortly.

[DaleC]

Hello Dr Sam,

Funny you should mention Le Prieur. I am currently reading:

"The World Beneath the Waves" by Dr Gilbert Doukan Translated by A. and R.M. Case.
John DeGraff, Inc. New York. HC. 1957 (first US printing).

In it, he gives a very good accounting of the early years of french/European goggling and the Rouquayrol/Denayrouze, Le Prieur, Corlieu, Cousteau timeline (among many other early topics). Well written and scholarly.

[eskimo3883]

There is a site French website I used to go to that listed only spear fishing books. Their list started with "The complete Goggler" and went on to list every spear fishing book. It is the only French page I have seen which admitted the first spear fishing book in the world was not French. I used that list to completed my collection up to ~1955. I cannot find that specific site but it may still be out there and maybe others can speak up. Rather than post a list stolen off other web sites I have noted several pages that list specifically early French spear fishing books. If you have a title, author and year you can wait for them to come up on Ebay France and Amazon France.

My favorite site for all early diving (but also very good on earely French books and dive mags):
http://frogmanmuseum.free.fr/

Left side has button for French books before and after 1940. Every dive book before 1950 is pretty much a Spear fishing book.

Another good site:
1943 -1950:
http://plongeedansleslivres.voila.net/page1/index.html
1950-1952
http://plongeedansleslivres.voila.net/page2/index.html
1950-1960
http://plongeedansleslivres.voila.net/page3/index.html
1954-1956
http://plongeedansleslivres.voila.net/page4/index.html
1956-1959
http://plongeedansleslivres.voila.net/page5/index.html

Great site for books in all languages: "Classic Dive Books”
http://classicdivebooks.customer.netspa ... reign.html

Very good museum page:
http://www.pieds-lourds.com/

Book section of this museum:
http://www.pieds-lourds.com/Pages/plivres.htm

English translated page using google:
http://translate.google.com/translate?c ... pair=fr|en

Very nice Photos and documents from an individual:
http://www.harpon34.net/

The Site “Historic Marine France has Books on this page but gear on its other pages. I do not understand this page but enjoy it for window shopping. There are prices at times but I can not tell if these are estimates or an available item with a selling price. I then use information on these items to look up else where.

http://historic-marine-france.com/scaph ... livres.htm

Example:
Listed on the web page above was: "Palmes et masque. evolutions sous-marines" by Davo Koubi. (1954)

Go to Amazon France, look up Davo Koubi in the search bar (same page layout as Amazon USA so no need to understand French; Searching using author names is easier to sort than French titles, no need for knowing French). Amazon has a used 1954 vintage copy for EUR 29,90 . The very bottom of the page has French Amazon.com books some of which are vintage.


Handy French words to search on French Ebay, etc.
Anciens: old
PLONGEE: DIVING
SOUS MARINE: UNDER MARINE
Plongeur: Diver
SCAPHANDRIER: diver
Scaphandre: diving-suit
Plongée: Diving
Détendeur: Pressure reducer (regulator)
La chasse sous-marine: The Hunt underwater (spear fishing)

[DaleC]

Wow,this is the sort of info packed post that I like. Thanks!

[eskimo3883]

Hello,

Copy of LE-PRIEUR's book on diving closes in 17h on Ebay France. Zero bids with a min of 1 Euro at the moment. My copys are paper back. This one either was a hard cover or was rebound. Not sure.

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/PREMIER-DE-PLONG ... 1c30871790

[eskimo3883]

Here are 3 more vintage French diving books.

Spear fishing book from 1947. I had to buy several copies of this book to get a dust cover in this good of shape.
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/laventure-sous-m ... 484f433719

Spear fishing book from 1955
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/livre-ancien-XX- ... 23280c77fc

Dole's book from 1953
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/laventure-sous-m ... 484f433719