Rachel Carson is known primarily as the author of Silent Spring, a 1962 book that introduced readers to the hazards of pesticide abuse, shifting the focus of environmental writing by addressing dangers posed to the natural world by human technology. But before the publication of this seminal work, Carson was well known as a nature writer. Her three best-selling books about the sea earned recognition for their combination of the precise observation of the scientist and the vital language of the poet. Carson also wrote magazine articles and composed and edited a significant body of government publications for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, which in 1939 became a part of the new Fish and Wildlife Service. Though Carson's writing for magazines and the government should be considered in developing a thorough and complete understanding of her career, her lasting reputation rests primarily on Silent Spring and on her role...