ìIt is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and
       in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and
       humility.î
            -Rachel Carson

        Rachel Carson was born on May 27th, 1907 in Springdale, PA. She lived in a
       rural community and was raised in the natural world of fields, woods and
       streams. She was the youngest of three children, all of whom spent a great
       deal of time in nature. Carson credits her mother with introducing her to the
       world of nature that became her lifelong passion.
        In 1925 Carson entered the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham
       College). She dropped her early inclinations to pursue writing and then
       switched her major to zoology after a required course in biology piqued her
       interest in the study of wildlife and the environment (Travers, 129).
       In 1929 Carson graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. and then was granted a
       fellowship study at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in
       Massachusetts. She later went on to John Hopkins University on scholarship. In
       1932 she earned a M.S. in zoology at John Hopkins.
        About a year after graduating, Carsonís sister died. Carson and her mother
       then took on the responsibility of raising her sisterís children. The need for
       additional income led Carson to become an aquatic biologist with the United
       States Bureau of Fisheries. In 1936, Carson applied for the aquatic biologist
       position. Despite being the only woman to apply for the position, Carson
       scored highest on the qualifying test and then was hired.
       She was hired as the writer of a radio show called ìRomance Under the Waters,î
       in which she was able to explore life under the seas and bring it to her
       listeners.
        During the 1940ís, Carson began writing books on her observations of life
       under the sea. In 1941, just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, her
       first book, Under the Sea, was published. She then resigned from her
       government position in 1952 to devote all her time to writing. Her second
       work, The Sea Around Us, was published in 1951, securing Carson financial
       success and fame.
        When a friend of Carsonís who owned a private bird sanctuary, wrote to her
       about the devastating morality that DDT spraying caused among birds, Carson
       turned her attention to wildlife-pesticide interactions. She began to write
       her most famous book, Silent Spring, in 1957. After being rejected by Readerís
       Digest, Carson persuaded the Houghton Mifflin Company to publish her book in
       1962.
        Carsonís book sent shockwaves through communities because it exposed the
       dangers of unregulated pesticide use. After the insecticidal properties of DDT
       (dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane) were discovered in 1939, it was used with
       little restraint to protect crops and gardens and to wipe out insect pests.
       The heavy use of DDT and other pesticides produced increases in crop output
       and helped to control insect-borne diseases such as malaria, but the negative
       side effects were overlooked. Carson played an important role in focusing
       attention on those effects.
        Despite criticism from some sectors of government and business, Carsonís
       arguments in Silent Spring, gained more influence as the dangerous effects
       became more obvious. She never argued that pesticides should be banned, only
       that their use be regulated and monitored president Kennedy read her book, and
       called for testing on the chemicals mentioned. By the end of 1962, state
       legislators had introduced over 40 bills calling for pesticide regulation, and
       in 1972, the government finally banned DDT use. Carsonís Silent Spring not
       only uncovered the dangers of excessive pesticide use, but also has been
       called the mother of the modern environmental movement. Her ideas continue to
       shape the way we think today.
        Carson died on April 14, 1964 at her home in Silver Springs, MD.
 
 
 
 

            Books by Rachel Carson:

          1941- Under the Sea Wind
          1943- Food from the Sea: Fish and Shellfish of New England
          1944- Food from the Sea: Fish and Shellfish of the South Atlantic
          1951- The Sea around us
          1955- The Edge of the Sea
          1962- Silent Spring
          1965- The Sense of Wonder (posthumous)
 
 
 

        Travers, Bridget ed. World of Scientific Discovery: Scientific Discoveries and
the People Who Made them Possible. ìRachel Carsonî Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1994.

        Women in History. ìRachel Carson.î <http://lkwdpl.org/wihohio/cars-rac.htm>
         (3-5-01).