Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King

The only complete biography of the man who explored and explained the magnificent world of the oceans as no one else before or since. With the cooperation of many of Jacques Cousteaus 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 Frances Croix de Guerre); developingand risking his life testingthe regulator that made scuba diving possible; running the worlds 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 mistressforty years his junior and the mother of two of his childrenkindling 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 Cousteaus life, Matsen paints a luminous portrait of a man who profoundly changed the way we view, and treat, our planet.