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"The Compleat Goggler
Being the First and Only Exhaustive Treatise on the Art of Goggle Fishing. That Noble and Excellent Sport Perfected and Popularized by Guy Gilpatric in the Mediterranean Sea - Though Long Practiced Elsewhere by Other Benighted Savages;
Setting Forth the Proper manner of Making the Goggles, Spears and Other Needful Gadgets Together with Descriptions of Many Marvels Witnessed Upon the Bottom of the Sea And Fully Exposing the Author's Cunning Methods of Swimming, Diving & Spearing Fish and Octopi."
By Guy Gilpatric
1938 Dodd Mead & Company, New York City, NY
Hard cover with a dust jacket
182 pages; excess of 30 illustrations approximately 25 pictures, several taken underwater
The very first modern printed document chronicling the genesis of "goggle fishing" or as know today "spear fishing."
It it a collection of short goggling /spearfishing stories written by Mr. Gilpatric for the
Saturday Evening Post during the years 1934, 1935, 1937 & 1938.
There are very few of the original books on the open market, and there apparently is no clear estimate of the number remaining.
Few modern divers, including my self, would not have had the opportunity to own or read the Compleat Goggler if it had not been for the insight and courage of the founder of Skin Diver Magazine. Mr. Charles "Chuck" Blakeslee. He entered into a relationship with the original publisher, Dodd Mead and company who were still in business in 1956 to use the original plates to reprint 1200 copies of the book under the SDM banner in 1957 with an added forward by Mr. James Dugan, a very popular writer of that era and the US public relations agent for Cousteau; who at that time was almost unknown in the US or by the world.
The Skin Diver magazine reprint was listed a $5.00 dollars a copy but only a few books were sold, so the remaining books were converted into a marketing inducement. Purchase a subscription to Skin Diver Magazine a receive a copy of the book. Even then very few were sold.
In late 1960s the original owners , Chuck Blakeslee and Jim Auxier sold Skin Diver Magazine to the giant speciality magazine company Petersen Publishing in Hollywood. All the remaining editions of the SDM Compleat Goggler which were stored in boxes in the hall way of the firm's Lynwood office were "disposed with extreme prejudice " in the Long Beach California dump by the new owners of Skin Diver Magazine.
Epilogue:
Guy Gilpatric purchased a home on a hill over looking Santa Barbara California where he and his beloved wife spent their remaining days together. They passed away in June 1950
The Saturday Evening Post ceased publication in 1969
Chuck Blakeslee is alive and well and lives in a small northern California community with his wife Jere.
Jim Auxier passed away about 15 years ago at his daughter's home in Georgia
The current market value of decent used original copy of the Compleat Goggler is in excess of $1000.00
The current market value of a SDM reprint of the Compleat Goggler is in excess of $300.00.
The great pioneer spear fisherman/author/ world explorer Dr Professor Hans Hass who was a young man on a vacation in France when he was introduced to goggle fishing by Mr. Gilpatric. He is the only person remaining alive who knew Mr. Gilpatric and was mentioned in the book.
I have had the opportunity to have meet Dr Hass & his lovely wife Lotte on numerous occasions beginning in 1959 and have The Compleat Goggler inscribed by him on the pages he was mentioned. They are both alive and well and living in Liechtenstein
Being the First and Only Exhaustive Treatise on the Art of Goggle Fishing. That Noble and Excellent Sport Perfected and Popularized by Guy Gilpatric in the Mediterranean Sea - Though Long Practiced Elsewhere by Other Benighted Savages;
Setting Forth the Proper manner of Making the Goggles, Spears and Other Needful Gadgets Together with Descriptions of Many Marvels Witnessed Upon the Bottom of the Sea And Fully Exposing the Author's Cunning Methods of Swimming, Diving & Spearing Fish and Octopi."
By Guy Gilpatric
1938 Dodd Mead & Company, New York City, NY
Hard cover with a dust jacket
182 pages; excess of 30 illustrations approximately 25 pictures, several taken underwater
The very first modern printed document chronicling the genesis of "goggle fishing" or as know today "spear fishing."
It it a collection of short goggling /spearfishing stories written by Mr. Gilpatric for the
Saturday Evening Post during the years 1934, 1935, 1937 & 1938.
There are very few of the original books on the open market, and there apparently is no clear estimate of the number remaining.
Few modern divers, including my self, would not have had the opportunity to own or read the Compleat Goggler if it had not been for the insight and courage of the founder of Skin Diver Magazine. Mr. Charles "Chuck" Blakeslee. He entered into a relationship with the original publisher, Dodd Mead and company who were still in business in 1956 to use the original plates to reprint 1200 copies of the book under the SDM banner in 1957 with an added forward by Mr. James Dugan, a very popular writer of that era and the US public relations agent for Cousteau; who at that time was almost unknown in the US or by the world.
The Skin Diver magazine reprint was listed a $5.00 dollars a copy but only a few books were sold, so the remaining books were converted into a marketing inducement. Purchase a subscription to Skin Diver Magazine a receive a copy of the book. Even then very few were sold.
In late 1960s the original owners , Chuck Blakeslee and Jim Auxier sold Skin Diver Magazine to the giant speciality magazine company Petersen Publishing in Hollywood. All the remaining editions of the SDM Compleat Goggler which were stored in boxes in the hall way of the firm's Lynwood office were "disposed with extreme prejudice " in the Long Beach California dump by the new owners of Skin Diver Magazine.
Epilogue:
Guy Gilpatric purchased a home on a hill over looking Santa Barbara California where he and his beloved wife spent their remaining days together. They passed away in June 1950
The Saturday Evening Post ceased publication in 1969
Chuck Blakeslee is alive and well and lives in a small northern California community with his wife Jere.
Jim Auxier passed away about 15 years ago at his daughter's home in Georgia
The current market value of decent used original copy of the Compleat Goggler is in excess of $1000.00
The current market value of a SDM reprint of the Compleat Goggler is in excess of $300.00.
The great pioneer spear fisherman/author/ world explorer Dr Professor Hans Hass who was a young man on a vacation in France when he was introduced to goggle fishing by Mr. Gilpatric. He is the only person remaining alive who knew Mr. Gilpatric and was mentioned in the book.
I have had the opportunity to have meet Dr Hass & his lovely wife Lotte on numerous occasions beginning in 1959 and have The Compleat Goggler inscribed by him on the pages he was mentioned. They are both alive and well and living in Liechtenstein
