Carson, Rachel

▪ American biologist

in full  Rachel Louise Carson 

born May 27, 1907, Springdale, Pa., U.S.

died April 14, 1964, Silver Spring, Md.

      American biologist well known for her writings on environmental pollution and the natural history of the sea.

      Carson early developed a deep interest in the natural world. She entered Pennsylvania College for Women with the intention of becoming a writer but soon changed her major field of study from English to biology. After taking her bachelor's degree in 1929, she did graduate work at Johns Hopkins University (M.A., 1932) and in 1931 joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, where she taught for five years. From 1929 to 1936 she also taught in the Johns Hopkins summer school and pursued postgraduate studies at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

 In 1936 Carson took a position as aquatic biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (from 1940 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), where she remained until 1952, the last three years as editor in chief of the service's publications. An article in The Atlantic Monthly in 1937 served as the basis for her first book, Under the Sea-Wind, published in 1941. It was widely praised, as were all her books, for its remarkable combination of scientific accuracy and thoroughness with an elegant and lyrical prose style. The Sea Around Us (1951) became a national best seller, won a National Book Award, and was eventually translated into 30 languages. Her third book, The Edge of the Sea, was published in 1955.

 Carson's prophetic Silent Spring (1962) was first serialized in The New Yorker and then became a best seller, creating worldwide awareness of the dangers of environmental pollution. She stood behind her warnings of the consequences of indiscriminate pesticide use, despite the threat of lawsuits from the chemical industry and accusations that she engaged in “emotionalism” and “gross distortion.” Some critics even claimed that she was a communist. Carson died before she could see any substantive results from her work on this issue, but she left behind some of the most influential environmental writing ever published.

Additional Reading

Martha Freeman (ed.), Always, Rachel (1994), collects Carson's correspondence with her friend Dorothy Freeman, 1952–64. Carson's life and work are examined in Paul Brooks, The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work (1972, reissued 1989), with selections from her published and unpublished material; H. Patricia Hynes, The Recurring Silent Spring (1989); Mary A. McCay, Rachel Carson (1993); and Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (1997).

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