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My Father, the Captain: My Life With Jacques Cousteau
272
by Daniel Paisner, Jean-Michel Cousteau
Daniel Paisner
My Father, the Captain: My Life With Jacques Cousteau
272
by Daniel Paisner, Jean-Michel Cousteau
Daniel Paisner
Hardcover
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Overview
In every legend, there is a legacy. In the life and career of undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau, that legacy beats in the heart of the sea and in the heart of his son, Jean-Michel, the noted French environmentalist,
educator and documentary film producer who has spent most of his adult life nurturing the work of his famous father.
In My Father, The Captain, Jean-Michel Cousteau takes an open and intimate look at the life he shared with his father, and the legend he has taken it upon himself to carry. In so doing, he hopes to shed new and meaningful light on the life and work of a man who inspired millions to reconsider our relationship with the sea and its creatures-and, in the process, to understand a little more about himself and his family as well.
"Captain Cousteau was a complicated man," the younger Cousteau writes. "He was a man of many different personalities, many different moods. But this is how it is with all great men, yes? We know the public mask, but it is the private face that reveals a man's true character. It is the man we know when the cameras are not filming."
My Father, The Captain is shot-through with new material and fresh insights into the life and mind of a man who helped to jump-start a global conservation effort that continues to flourish. Jean-Michel Cousteau and his collaborator, New York Times best-selling author Daniel Paisner, offer an intimate reappraisal of the many touchstone moments Jean-Michel shared with his father, as well as the seminal moments from his father's life that have become part of the Cousteau family lore and legend.
educator and documentary film producer who has spent most of his adult life nurturing the work of his famous father.
In My Father, The Captain, Jean-Michel Cousteau takes an open and intimate look at the life he shared with his father, and the legend he has taken it upon himself to carry. In so doing, he hopes to shed new and meaningful light on the life and work of a man who inspired millions to reconsider our relationship with the sea and its creatures-and, in the process, to understand a little more about himself and his family as well.
"Captain Cousteau was a complicated man," the younger Cousteau writes. "He was a man of many different personalities, many different moods. But this is how it is with all great men, yes? We know the public mask, but it is the private face that reveals a man's true character. It is the man we know when the cameras are not filming."
My Father, The Captain is shot-through with new material and fresh insights into the life and mind of a man who helped to jump-start a global conservation effort that continues to flourish. Jean-Michel Cousteau and his collaborator, New York Times best-selling author Daniel Paisner, offer an intimate reappraisal of the many touchstone moments Jean-Michel shared with his father, as well as the seminal moments from his father's life that have become part of the Cousteau family lore and legend.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781426206832 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Disney Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 05/25/2010 |
| Pages: | 272 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.54(w) x 9.36(h) x 0.97(d) |
About the Author
Jean-Michel Cousteau is the president of the high-profile Ocean Futures Society. He has made more than 80 films and has won an Emmy, a Peabody, a 7 d'Or, and a Cable Ace Award. Cousteau is the executive producer of the acclaimed PBS TV series Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures, and the author of My Father, the Captain: My Life with Jacques Cousteau.
Daniel Paisner is the New York Times bestselling author/coauthor of more than 60 books, including Denzel Washington's A Hand to Guide Me, Missy Franklin’s Relentless Spirit: The Unconventional Raising of a Champion, and Daymond John’s The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage. To learn more, visit danielpaisner.com or follow @DanielPaisner on Twitter.
Daniel Paisner is the New York Times bestselling author/coauthor of more than 60 books, including Denzel Washington's A Hand to Guide Me, Missy Franklin’s Relentless Spirit: The Unconventional Raising of a Champion, and Daymond John’s The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage. To learn more, visit danielpaisner.com or follow @DanielPaisner on Twitter.
Read an Excerpt
My Father, the Captain
My Life With Jacques CousteauBy Jean-Michel Cousteau
National Geographic
Copyright © 2010 Jean-Michel CousteauAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9781426206832
My Father, The Captain
Book Excerpt
In the spring of 1950, Jacques-Yves Cousteau had a vision. Or, at least, he liked to recall that he had a vision, but it’s possible that what became a vision in the retelling was in reality a chance encounter. Either way, he’d found his ship. In the first version of the story, the magical version that suggests that the Calypso appeared before him like something out of a storybook, Dad was out for a stroll in the harbor village of La Valette-du-Var, on the island of Malta. La Valette is a charming village that even today feels old and new all at once, rich with history and at the same time utterly contemporary and altogether vibrant, although in 1950, the large naval ships in the port were a bleak reminder that the island was still under British rule. In this very harbor, my father took to saying that the Calypso appeared before him for the first time. He fell immediately under her spell. He described the ship to his collaborator Yves Paccalet in the following terms: “With her half-white, half-black wooden planking, anchored among the fishing boats and battleships, she enchanted me immediately. I want her. I shall have her. I read her name on the hull: Calypso C. At that moment, I realized that I will command her and that I will sail her to the end of the world. . . .”
It is a romantic vision, yes? And yet there is another account that seems far more reliable. I heard my father tell this complementary version many times as well and came to suspect that the truth rested in the balance of these two stories. In the second version, my father was visiting Auron, a ski resort in the south of France, and he was at dinner with friends, talking about his dream of exploring the world’s oceans. He expressed his frustration with L’Elie Monnier and told of the difficulties he was having requisitioning a more suitable vessel from the French Navy. JYC was a wonderful dreamer, a wonderful storyteller, a wonderful dinner companion—and from the accounts of those present, he was his usual effervescent self on this night. When my father stood to leave, he was approached by a gentleman who had been seated at the next table. The man appeared to have been caught in the swirl of my father’s enthusiasm. He said, “Forgive me, but I overheard your conversation. I might be in a position to offer you a vessel to help you achieve your dream.”
Continues...
Excerpted from My Father, the Captain by Jean-Michel Cousteau Copyright © 2010 by Jean-Michel Cousteau. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Two Salutes 9
1 Beginnings 17
2 My Arrival 33
3 Liquid Air 55
4 A Family at Sea 75
5 Sanary 91
6 Waiting for Calypso 105
7 A Place of My Own 129
8 From Madagascar to Hollywood 159
9 Treasure 177
10 Philippe 189
11 Future Generations 211
12 The End of Something 229
Epilogue: Legacy 243
Time line 251
Acknowledgments 255
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