Rachel Carson - (1907-1964)
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"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn
again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility." - Rachel Carson I. Biography Rachel Louise Carson was born in Springdale,
Pennsylvania. She was the youngest of three children, and had a rugged upbringing in a simple farmhouse outside the western Pennsylvania river town of Springdale. Carson was
considered both a scientist and a writer. Even at a young age, she was drawn to nature. In all her books, Rachel Carson changed the way people viewed the ocean and the planet.
Even though her family was poor, Carson studied hard to receive a scholarship to the Pennsylvania College for Women. Back in that time, it was very unusual for women to
pursue their careers, so Carson showed great determination and courage. In 1929, she graduated with a degree in biology and in 1931, she got a Master's Degree in marine zoology from John Hopkins University.
After this Carson joined the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as the writer of a radio show, "Romance Under the Waters", in which she explored life under the sea and brought it to
listeners. In 1936, she was the first woman to pass the civil service test, and over 15 years she rose in the ranks of the Bureau, eventually becoming chief editor.
Carson died in 1964 of cancer in her home of Silver Springs, Maryland. Rachel Carson is very inspiring because both her love for nature and her commitment to take action to
protect it shows that because Carson cared about our planet, the Earth is better today. The books she published are as follows: The Edge of the Sea in 1955, The Sea Around Us in 1961,
The Sense of Wonder in 1965, Silent Spring in 1962, and Under the Sea Wind in 1952. II. Literary Works Silent Spring:
Carson is most famous for this book., which explains how pesticides were causing serious pollution and killing lots of animals. It was the first time anyone had
publicly shown how poisons affect everything in nature. The book detailed how the pesticide DDT had gotten into the food chain. It was causing major problems for birds,
because their shells were becoming too thin which caused the adult birds to crush their own babies when sitting on the eggs. There was a lot of controversy surrounding this
book with magazines and newspapers, saying the information was inaccurate, etc. As a result of this book, there are now hundreds of national, state and local laws that regulate
pesticides. The most poisonous ones, such as DDT, are now illegal to use in America. This book is viewed as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. After Silent Spring's
impact, and just before her death from breast cancer, she wrote to a friend, "The beauty of the living world I was trying to save has always been uppermost in my
mind, and anger at the senseless, brutish things that were being done. . . . Now I can believe I have at least helped a little. Despite innumerable personal tragedies while she was working on Silent Spring
-- she was seriously ill, a niece died and left a young son whom she adopted, her mother died, and she learned she had cancer -- Carson produced a book that would take on a life of its own. It
was a best-seller for a year and was translated into many languages. As Esquire magazine wrote, "The book that her efforts resulted in was about the spraying and what it did to the
birds and other creatures. But that does not begin to describe its scope or account for its impact. One might just as well say that Darwin wrote about turtles and the Pacific islands
where they were found." Carson died two years after Silent Spring was published, at age 56. Rocky Coast: This book is similar to all her other writings in that it involves nature, but
this book contains lots of photographs of sea creatures, and how they live, how the tides, waves, and ocean currents affect it and revealing patterns that go on continuously. At low
tide you explore with the author the reddish -brown turf of the Irish moss, where life exists in layers, etc. III. Sources Carson, Rachel L. The Rocky Coast. The McCall Publishing Company: New York, 1955.
Earhart,Celeste. Home page. Toxic Chemicals Page.
This essay was submitted by a student of Cheryl Petersohn, a teacher at Harriton High School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.
Carson, Rachel L. Silent Spring. Cambridge, Mass: Riverside Press, 1962.