RACHEL CARSON
G'day folks,
Welcome to some background on a woman who was ahead of her time.
Known
for: writing Silent
Spring, motivating environmentalist movement of the late 60s and early 70s
Occupation: writer, scientist, ecologist, environmentalist, marine
biologist
Also
known as: Rachel
Louise Carson
Rachel Carson Biography:
Rachel
Carson was born and grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania. She dreamed of becoming
a writer, and had her first story published in St. Nicholas when she was
10. She attended high school in Parnassas, Pennsylvania.
Carson
enrolled at the Pennsylvania College for Women (which later became Chatham
College). She changed her major from English after taking a required biology
course. She went on to complete an M.A. at Johns Hopkins University.
Early Career:
During
summers, Carson worked at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in
Massachusetts, and taught at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins. In
1936, she took a job as a writer with the US Bureau of Fisheries (which later
became the US Fish and Wildlife Service). Over the years she was promoted to
staff biologist, and, in 1949, chief editor.
First Book:
Rachel
Carson's father died in 1935, and she supported and lived with her mother from
that time. In 1937 her sister died, and the sister's two daughters moved in
with Rachel and her mother.
Carson
began writing magazine pieces about science to supplement her income. In 1941,
she adapted one of those articles into a book, Under the Seawind, in
which she tried to communicate the beauty and wonder of the oceans.
First Bestseller:
After the
war ended, Carson had access to formerly classified scientific data about the
oceans, and she worked for several years on another book. When The Sea
Around Us was published in 1951, it became a bestseller -- 86 weeks on the
New York Times best-seller list, 39 weeks as the top seller. In 1952, she
resigned from the Fish and Wildlife Service to focus on her writing.
Another Book:
In 1955,
Carson published The Edge of the Sea. While successful -- 20 weeks on
the best-seller list -- it did not do as well as her previous book.
Family Matters:
Some of
Carson's energies went into more family matters. In 1956, one of her nieces
died, and Rachel adopted her niece's son. And in 1958, her mother died, leaving
the son in Rachel's sole care. She never married.
Silent Spring:
In 1962,
Carson's next book was published: Silent Spring. Carefully researched
over 4 years, the book documented the dangers of pesticides and herbicides. She
showed the long-lasting presence of toxic chemicals in water and on land and
the presence of DDT even in mother's milk, as well as the threat to other
creatures, especially songbirds.
After Silent Spring:
Despite a
full-scale assault from the agricultural chemical industry, which called the
book everything from "sinister" and "hysterical" to
"bland," the public's concern was raised. President John F. Kennedy
read Silent Spring and initiated a presidential advisory committee. In
1963, CBS produced a television special featuring Rachel Carson and several
opponents of her conclusions. The US Senate opened an investigation of
pesticides.
In 1964,
Carson died of cancer in Silver Spring, Maryland. Just before she died, she was
elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. But she was not able to
see the changes that her helped produce.
After her
death, an essay she'd written was published in book form as Sense of Wonder.
Clancy's comment: Mm ... With all the discussion and conjecture about climate change, I bet she would be rolling over in her grave today.
I'm ...
No comments:
Post a Comment