Own a piece of history!

This first-edition, hard bound copy of The Silent World has its original jacket and is signed by Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau.  It is in used condition but has been well loved by the Cousteau family since its publication.

The Silent World (subtitle: A story of undersea discovery and adventure, by the first men to swim at record depths with the freedom of fish) is a 1953 book co-authored by Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Frédéric Dumas and edited by James Dugan. Although a French national, Cousteau wrote the book in English. The book recounts how Cousteau and Émile Gagnan designed, built and tested the first "aqua-lung" in the summer of 1943 off the southern coast of France. In the opening chapters Cousteau describes the earliest days of scuba diving with his diving companions Frédéric Dumas and Philippe Tailliez. The aqualung allowed, for the first time in history, untethered, free-floating, and extended deep water diving and ushered in the modern era of scuba diving. Later chapters include excursions diving ship wrecks.

This book was the basis of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Silent World (1956). As of the book's 50th anniversary, it has been translated into some 22 languages and sold over 5 million copies and is still in print.

The book contains 48 pages of black and white photos by various photographers and 16 pages of color images. The hand-held work in Ektachrome "is the first ever made in significant depths, using artificial light and scientific color correction."