Jacques Cousteau (44 page)

The idea for this book came from the lively mind of Meryl Rosofsky, physician, chef, traveler, bon vivant, and dear friend. I hope I have done justice to her confidence that I could do this job and thank her for her inspiration.

Writing about an internationally celebrated, complex, and beloved man would have been impossible without the generosity and kindness of dozens of people who knew him or in some way counted themselves among his enormous circle of friends and acquaintances. I am most grateful to Fabien Cousteau, who shared my enthusiasm for creating an accurate, engaging portrait of his grandfather, and to Jean-Michel Cousteau, whose forthright recollections informed my understanding of his father. Sandra Squire, Jean-Michel Cousteau’s assistant, remained cheerfully helpful even when my many phone calls and requests had certainly become a nuisance. Former members of the crews of
Calypso
and
Alcyone
answered my questions both on and off the record about Cousteau, the inventions he inspired to explore the underwater world, and life aboard ship during forty-five years of filmmaking at sea. Thanks especially to André Laban, Albert Falco, Marc Blessington, and Richard Murphy. Tom Beers, formerly a producer at Turner Broadcasting, provided me with great insights into the rigors and routines of television production as well as some details of the last years of Cousteau’s life. Cousteau himself recorded a great deal of his life in words and on film.

My understanding of the development and mechanics of the Aqua-Lung was nurtured by Phil Nuytten, a pioneer diver and renaissance man who never seemed to be annoyed when I asked him the same question two or three times. His explanations of oxygen rebreathers, gas regulators, and the physiology of breathing were crucial to explaining them to readers.

I am grateful to psychologist Dr. Lisa Fortlouis Wood, who helped me understand Cousteau’s personality and his pattern of involving countless people in fulfilling his visions and leaving most of them behind as he moved on to his next adventure.

I am not the first writer to attempt to chronicle the life of Jacques Cousteau, and am grateful to all who have gone before me, especially Leslie Leaney and Phil Nuytten. Their finely wrought stories on Cousteau and the Aqua-Lung in
Historical
Diver
magazine were true gifts. I am also indebted to Axel Madsen and Richard Munson, whose biographies of Cousteau guided me through the chronology and events through the 1980s.

Many friends shared this four-year voyage with me, providing advice, comfort, research leads, and recollections of Cousteau. My heartfelt thanks to Barbara Bernstein, Mark Brinster, Gary Burdge, Kelly Cassad, Nicolas Chaubert, Daniel Clem, Gail Cunningham and Sara Wood, Doug Dixon at Pacific Fisherman Shipyard, John Grissim, Brett Hobson, Clyde Hull, Barbara Marrett, Will Nothdurft, Claire Nouvian, Carol Ostrom, Jeff Parkhurst, Bruce Robison, Mark Shelley, Colleen Simpson, Tierney Thys, Ray Troll, and Peter Ward.

My agent, Richard Abate at Endeavor, encouraged me as he always does to think clearly and tell a good story. He led me to an understanding of this book as something other than a recitation of events and always seemed to know what to do when I didn’t.

Edward Kastenmeier, my editor, recognized the importance of this work and was patient through some unusual circumstances along the way. I am grateful that he insisted I rise above the ordinary in my perceptions of Cousteau and his significance to the world. I also thank Timothy O’Connell, Katharine Freeman, and the other bookmakers at Pantheon, whose excellent work adds so much to what you now hold in your hands.

I gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the MacDowell Colony and Theodore W. Kheel. Both contributed immensely to my sense of well-being while I worked.

My family, Laara Matsen, Jonas Bendiksen, and Milo Bendiksen, provided me with boundless love and inspiration, ingredients so essential to my life that nothing at all would have happened without them.

Brad Matsen has been writing about the sea and its inhabitants for forty years. He is the author of
Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss
, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2006;
Titanic’s Last Secrets; Planet Ocean: A Story of Life, the Sea, and Dancing to the Fossil Record;
the award-winning
Incredible Ocean Adventure
series for children; and many other books. He was a 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 many other magazines. He lives on Vashon Island in Puget Sound.

Copyright © 2009 by Bradford Matsen

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Matsen, Bradford
Jacques Cousteau : the sea king / Brad Matsen.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37827-9
1. Cousteau, Jacques Yves. 2. Oceanographers—
France—Biography. I. Title.
GC30.C68M38    2009    551.46092—
DC
22    [
B
]    2009011640

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