Personally, I had never heard of Rachel Carson until about a month ago. I was reading The Week (an excellent news magazine that I highly recommend) and there are always two book reviews in each issue. One was for “On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson.“
(This image or recording is the work of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.)
In the review, I learned that Carson was a biologist and conservationist way back in the day. In the 1950s, she became a nature writer. In 1951, she wrote “The Sea Around Us,” in which she talked about the beginnings of the sea and the latest news about it. She won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and a Burroughs Medal for it. It has since been translated into 28 languages.
But, Carson wasn’t going to sit on her laurels. Her next book, “The Edge of the Sea,” was also a best seller, but it was 1962’s “Silent Spring” that would really be her shining moment in literature. It was the first exposure for many Americans to pesticides in the environment and how it affected wildlife. She also spoke harshly about the chemical industry, saying it was harming us as well and her book helped change public policy about such chemicals as DDT. The Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Nonfiction lists “Silent Springs” as #5 and Discover Magazine ranks it among the Top 25 science books of all time.
Of course, “Silent Springs” was not without its critics, especially chemical manufacturers like DuPont and Velsicol Chemical Company. But, some scientists also criticized Carson’s findings as well, saying that to completely do away with pesticides would return civilization to the Dark Ages. Some even called her a communist!
Still, Carson’s legacy is of that of – well, you might say – the Grandmother of Conservation. Carson was diagnosed with breast cancer and died in 1964. She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously by President Jimmy Carter.