Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King [Hardcover]

Brad Matsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2009

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest research effort, Matsen (Titanic's Last Secrets) aims to produce a "respectful, honest remembrance" of beloved oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, with admirable results. An adventurer, inventor, explorer, environmentalist and filmmaker, Cousteau, along with his talented crew and family members, developed groundbreaking tools for diving and filming underwater. Matsen traces Cousteau's career and personal life from his 1911 birth throughout the twentieth century, as he pursued military and, later, civilian life, two marriages, attempting to answer questions about the individual beneath the public figure: "How could a man of such immense power have allowed his children... to turn against each other? Was he a tragic character hidden behind the veil of celebrity? Does he deserve our enduring love?" While he doesn't uncover all the answers, Matsen examines Cousteau with a sensitive eye, qualifying his astounding career and lasting legacy (just in time for 2009's anticipated restoration of Cousteau's vessel Calypso). Readers will learn the particulars of Cousteau-designed Aqua Lungs and wetsuits, as well as the underwater living experiment and nonprofit corporations that Cousteau founded, without neglecting the challenges of funding his adventures. Environmentalists, divers, and armchair ocean lovers will all soak up this work.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Advance Praise for Jacques Cousteau

"Like the subject of this book, Brad Matsen has found his true milieu; the deep ocean. Now he brings his very special brilliance to illuminate the undersea world of Jacques Cousteau. He has done a masterful job in this much-needed, revealing biography of the ocean's most illustrious adventurer, filmmaker, conservationist, and advocate."
—Richard Ellis, author of Tuna: A Love Story and On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear

"Jacques Cousteau was a genius who became an icon that became a legend. His legacy continues every time anyone dons a scuba tank, or even thinks of an undersea image. Matsen's book, perfect for beachside or bedside, is a worthy chronicle of a truly whale-sized life."
—Carl Safina, president and cofounder of the Blue Ocean Institute

"A marvelous story. Matsen's biography made me realize I knew almost nothing about the incredible inventor, scientist, businessman, explorer, and environmentalist that was Jacques Cousteau. I owe my career as a professional diver to him. Undoubtedly, this biography will inspire a new generation of divers to take to the water."
—John Chatterton, celebrated scuba diver and cohost of the television series Deep Sea Detectives

"I have looked into the sea all my life, and Cousteau has always been there, leading and guiding my journey. But the heroic image of the French explorer who informed, enlightened, and entertained us was as mysterious as the depths he plumbed. Now Brad Matsen shines light on the man behind the icon. A fascinating exploration of a true legend of the sea!"
—Richie Kohler, celebrated scuba diver and cohost of the television series Deep Sea Detectives

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1ST edition (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037542413X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375424137
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Oceans & Seas > Oceanography

More About the Author

Brad Matsen has been writing about wonders of the sea for forty years. He is the author of Death and Oil: A True Story of the Piper Alpha Disaster on the North Sea; Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King; Titanic's Last Secrets; Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2006; the New York Times bestseller Titanic's Last Secrets; Planet Ocean: A Story of Life the Sea, and Dancing to the Fossil Record with artist Ray Troll; the award-winning Incredible Ocean Adventure series for children; and many other books. He was creative producer for the Shape of Life, an eight-hour National Geographic television series on evolutionary biology, and has written on marine science and the environment for Mother Jones, Audubon, Natural History, and other magazines.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, entertaining, filled with revelations, October 27, 2009

By 

John Grissim (Sequim, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King (Hardcover)

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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing that it was written before, October 21, 2009

By 

urbaneye - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King (Hardcover)

An exciting and well written biography of an amazing man. The author tells the story of Cousteau with a nonsensational but highly engaging voice. Although I'm a big fan of all things Cousteau, Matsen reveals many aspects of him I was not even remotely aware of.

One of the remarkable things about the book is that it wasn't written a long time ago - as far as I know this is the only English-language detailed account of Cousteau's life and work: a man that not only revolutionized how we look at and engage with our watery planet, invented Scubadiving - but also had a fascinating (and thoroughly complicated...) personal life. This makes for a real page-turner, and Matsen delivers the goods with style.

I reccomend it to all people who are interested in the oceans, diving - or just want an entertaining read!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Deep Enough, April 10, 2010

By 

Eric Wilson "novelist" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King (Hardcover)

I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau on TV. He was a forerunner in the movement to protect our seas and our planet, and he was always entertaining as a filmmaker and storyteller. I can still hear his voice-overs in my head.

The appearance of "The Sea King" had me excited. I wanted to find out more about this man's life, his family, career, secrets, and more of the playful and dangerous experiences from his colorful life. The book starts at a snail pace. We wade through page after page of dry facts, told with little imagination or style. This reads like a textbook on the inventor of the Aqua-Lung, lacking that spark of storytelling prowess that infused Cousteau's own work. I plugged away, skimming well-researched but tedious details about the early efforts to perfect the Aqua-Lung. In between, I caught a few glimpses of Cousteau's background, including the conflict in the family due to his brother's collaboration with Nazis during WWII.

After the first few chapters, the book picks up a bit, giving us insights into the emergence of the Calypso ship--thanks to an heir of the Guinness Beer empire--and Ted Turner's part in helping the Cousteau Society press on in the changing times. It's sad to read how "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley" (fun shows, in their own rights) pushed Cousteau's groundbreaking work into obscurity. Nevertheless, the man's face remained one of the most recognizable in the world until the late 1980's, and his impact is hard to measure.

The author gives only snippets of Cousteau's personal life, only peeks at his philandering ways, his family struggles, and his reactions to tragedy. I'm sure this was intentional, to protect the family legacy, but it only blurs the three-dimensional complexity of a man so many admired. And we are robbed of deeper understanding of his wife, Simone, who stood by him through many tough years relationally and financially. I wished for more humor, more tidbits, more insight. True, I came away with more facts about this man I once adored, but little heart connection. Sadly, "The Sea King" didn't go deep enough.