C.J. Cook is an author and historian who has a long interest in the history of the South Pacific. His first book, Tyree, Artist of the South Pacific (2017), was an incredible success winning two Gold Awards for Best Cover and Best Biography from the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) in April 2018. His second book Leeteg, Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art (2021), also won a Gold Medal for Best Biography from the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) in April 2022.
Cook is a lifelong manuscript collector who has a particular interest in art and the South Pacific. He has written biographical sketches on historical figures. He is a board member of a prominent manuscript association dedicated to preserving manuscripts and historical documents.
He also is a collector of art from the South Pacific, including Ralph Burke Tyree, Edgar Leeteg, Edithe Beutler, Madge Tennent, Cece Rodriguez, Robert Lee Eskridge, and William Bloom. Some of the paintings and photographs in this book Leeteg, Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art, are from the author’s collection.
He has and continues to explore the South Pacific, including Guam, Pohnpei, Taiwan, Truk, Palau, Bali, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, its Great Barrier Reef, Tahiti and its surrounding islands, and the Hawaiian Islands. The last two island paradises he visits multiple times a year.
