Carson, Rachel | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Rachel Louise Carson was born on May 27, 1907, the youngest child of farming and teaching parents in Springdale, Pennsylvania. The 24-hectare (60-acre) homestead was an oasis of orchards, streams, and woods in the grimy Allegheny River Valley, which had been heavily polluted by the coal and steel industries. Carson's parents were a particularly gentle couple who encouraged in their daughter a love of books and nature and a deep belief in sharing Earth with all other living beings. She became a published author for the first time at the age of eleven and later said that the thrill of seeing her story in print and the princely prize of ten dollars set her on her life's course.

Carson received a scholarship to Pennsylvania College for Women and made the shocking decision to major in biology at a time when there were virtually no jobs for women scientists. Upon graduation, she was offered a summer internship at Woods Hole, Massachusetts—a famous ocean research center—and a full scholarship to John Hopkins University, where she earned her master's degree in biology. During the massive unemployment of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Carson took the civil service exam and became the first woman to be hired as a biologist by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. During World War II (1939-1945) she was assistant to the chief of the office of information at the newly renamed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During this period she began a series of books about the ocean and how the lives of its inhabitants—birds, fish, eels, and crustaceans—are intricately linked to one another and to the sea around them. All three of the books— Under the Sea-Wind, published in 1941, The Sea Around Us, published in 1951, and The Edge of the Sea, published in 1955—became bestsellers, and they catapulted Carson into national celebrity and allowed her to become a full-time writer.

In 1962 the publication of her fourth book, Silent Spring, caused a nationwide uproar over the dangers and benefits of unregulated pesticide use. Government study panels were convened, grassroots conservation and environmental movements were organized, and laws were passed in the wake of this latest Carson best-seller, which was promptly translated into over a dozen languages. Despite vicious attacks by the chemical interests, other scientists validated the warnings in Silent Spring, and Carson became a national hero. She was awarded numerous honors by such groups as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Animal Welfare Institute. She was the first woman to be awarded the Audubon Medal, and she received a posthumous Medal of Freedom. Carson died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964, with the hope that she would be remembered in connection with all that is lovely and beautiful.

Ddt; Pesticide; Silent Spring.

Harlan, Judith. Sounding the Alarm. Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1989.

Jezer, Marty. Rachel Carson. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.

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