Rachel Carson is often credited with starting the modern environmental movement, largely through the influence of her 1962 book Silent Spring. What was it about Rachel Carson, and her now-classic Silent Spring, that set an environmental revolution in motion?
Rachel Carson: Early Career
Rachel Louise Carson was born May 27, 1907, on a farm near Springdale in western Pennsylvania. Many biographers believe her mother, a teacher -- and her childhood in a wooded rural area -- helped to instill in Carson a love of the natural world.
Carson showed an early interest in writing, and had her first article published in the children's magazine St. Nicholas when she was 10 years old. Always an excellent student, Carson entered college in 1925 at the Pennsylvania College for Women, where she switched her major from English to biology.
Carson continued her education at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., where she earned a master's degree in 1932. After graduation, she began working with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as a biologist, an unusual career for a woman of her generation (she was one of only two women employed there as a professional).
Rachel Carson's Writings
Carson was a gifted writer and was recognized by the Bureau of Fisheries for her contributions to their radio programs, informational brochures and other products. She also continued to publish articles in newspapers and magazines including the Baltimore Sun, the Atlantic Monthly and other publications. Carson eventually became editor-in-chief of all publications by the newly formed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
In 1941, Carson published her first book, a lyrical description of aquatic life titled Under the Sea Wind. The book met with enthusiastic praise from reviewers, though it did not sell briskly. Before and during this time, Carson and her family struggled financially, and she was for many years the sole wage-earner in her extended family.
All that changed, however, in 1951 when Carson published her second book, The Sea Around Us. Another beautifully crafted story that captured the mystery and majesty of the world's oceans, the book was translated into over 30 languages, stayed on the New York Times’ bestseller list for 86 weeks and won the 1952 National Book Award. For the first time in her life -- but not the last -- Carson had achieved international fame and financial success.
Shortly after the publication of The Sea Around Us, Carson left her position at the Fish and Wildlife Service to devote her time to writing. She also purchased a home on the coast of Maine, which she used as a summer home for the rest of her life. Carson never married, and some biographers believe she may have had a "romantic friendship" with Dorothy Freeman, a neighbor in Maine and a fellow nature-lover.
Rachel Carson and Silent Spring
In 1955, Carson published The Edge of the Sea, the final book in what had become her sea trilogy. During this period of her life, she became increasingly concerned about the widespread use of chemical pesticides and their effect on the natural world. Her meticulous research into this issue, and the alarming effect that reckless use of pesticides like DDT were having on fish, birds, insects and other animals, were the foundation of her greatest success.
Silent Spring was published in 1962 to a nation shocked by what it read in the pages of that bestseller. Carson described, in the lyrical prose that was her trademark, the devastating effect of pesticides on environmental and human health. She noted how these products should more accurately be described as "biocides," since they did not limit their deadly impact to insect pests.
The response from the chemical and agriculture industries was swift and vicious. Carson was vilified as a Communist, a lesbian (a damning accusation in her day) and a fanatic. One critic stated, "If man were to follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth."
But all the attention and the ferocious attacks generated by Silent Spring led to increased public and government scrutiny of the pesticide industry. Carson testified before President Kennedy's Science Advisory Committee, which determined that her scientific findings were unassailable. The U.S. Senate opened an investigation into the use of DDT and other pesticides, and news organizations reported on the issue regularly.
Rachel Carson's Death and Legacy
During the firestorm of controversy that surrounded the publication of Silent Spring, Carson was fighting another battle: cancer. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer while researching Silent Spring, and treatment included a mastectomy followed by radiation.
After years of radiation and other treatments, Carson was told in 1964 that her cancer had spread; she died later that year at age 56.
Her work has been cited as one of the first and most robust defenses against human destruction of the environment. For the first time in the post-war era, an entire industry was forced to acknowledge its effect on the natural world. In 1972, the use of DDT was banned in the United States; many other countries had already stopped its use.
Carson is also credited with helping to create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. Before that time, the Department of Agriculture was responsible for regulating pesticide use while also promoting agricultural interests -- Carson called this a blatant conflict of interest.
In 1980, Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. One last essay by Carson was published posthumously: The Sense of Wonder, which encourages children and adults alike to experience the beauty of the world with the clear-eyed innocence of a child. "A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful," she wrote, "full of wonder and excitement."
