by Maureen Lafrenière

The publication of Silent Spring in 196 — Rachel Carson’s fourth and best-known book – is widely credited with the rise of modern environmentalism. This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the noted biologist and author, whose life and work place her among the most influential individuals of the last century. Her prophetic writing still resonates.

Rachel Louise Carson was born May 27th, 1907, in rural Pennsylvania. Like her mother, she was a lover of the outdoors and the two spent many hours together exploring and reading books about nature. Rachel always took for granted that she would be a writer – she was ten when her first piece was published. In college, she switched from English literature to biology and graduated with a major in zoology, a rare accomplishment for a woman in 1929. A first-rate student, she was awarded a scholarship for graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore following a summer fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She had already decided to be a marine biologist.

Rachel’s family joined her in Baltimore where her father and brother could work to help support the family. Rachel worked in a lab and taught zoology while earning a Master’s degree, but her family’s financial situation prevented her from pursuing a doctorate. Her first job was writing scripts part-time for the Bureau of Fisheries (now the Fish & Wildlife Service) for a series of radio broadcasts. In time, she graduated to a full-time position as junior aquatic biologist in the Information Division. She rose steadily, making a lasting contribution to the department’s publications as writer and editor. Colleagues remembered ‘Ray’ as hard-working, exacting and cheerful. Throughout her government career, Rachel was often the major provider for her family and much spare time was spent writing articles for newspapers and magazines where her gift for words attracted the attention of a publisher.

Her first book, Under the Sea-Wind – a description of life in and around the ocean – appeared in 1941. It combined readable prose with scientifically accurate detail to create an eloquent portrait of sea life. Although praised, sales of the book were weak, partly due to lack of publicity and also to the timing of its release, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. This book would remain the author’s favourite.

Rachel’s job responsibilities and field travel around the eastern U.S. increased, providing valuable research experience and exposure to others’ scientific work. But family responsibilities kept her from traveling greater distances and she continued to supplement her income with magazine articles. She began to do research for a second book about the history of the ocean, later identifying herself as “the sea’s biographer”. She was convinced that once people grasped the story of the slow shaping of land and sea, an understanding of the insignificance of human life would follow, along with an appreciation for nature and a desire to protect it.

With help – this time from a literary agent and a new publishing company – The Sea Around Us was an immediate success in 1951, remaining on the New York Times best-seller list for 81 weeks. Both the public and the scientific community were charmed by the book’s clear and evocative narrative. Suddenly, the author faced unexpected public attention and a host of new pressures – awards, honorary degrees, letters and public speeches. This only increased with the re-publication of Under the Sea-Wind in 1952, which appeared on best-seller lists alongside The Sea Around Us. At long last, recognition was hers and financial strains eased, allowing her to become a full-time writer.

A third book, The Edge of the Sea, exploring the major types of coastline and their ecosystems, also became a best-seller in 1955, establishing Rachel Carson as a well-loved scientific writer. By this time, she had built a cottage on the ocean in Maine as a summer home, a treasured refuge for her family.

Her attention turned to pesticides a few years later when reports emerged of bird kills that followed applications of DDT. For years, she had worried about the unknown consequences of pesticide use, frequently comparing their environmental impact to that of atomic radiation from weapons testing. An investigation of government spraying programs uncovered many more devastating stories of harm to wildlife, people and habitats and Rachel felt it her role and obligation to help protect nature by bringing the story to the public.

The author suffered intense personal hardships during the four and a half years of writing Silent Spring. A beloved niece died in 1957, leaving a five-year-old boy in Rachel’s care. Shortly after, she faced the death of a very dear friend, soon followed by her mother’s illness and death. It was during this time that Rachel was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy and radiation therapy. She was also overwhelmed with numerous debilitating infections that prevented her from continuing her work.

Reaction to Silent Spring in 1962 was swift and explosive, its contents criticized even before the book made its appearance. Advance excerpts published in The New Yorker triggered attacks from industry and threats of lawsuits – but also letters from concerned citizens to all levels of government demanding investigations and controls on pesticide use. The very public controversy caused President John F. Kennedy to appoint a Science Advisory Committee to study the issue.

Public relations campaigns to discredit the author were relentless. Despite her insistence that she did not oppose the use of synthetic pesticides but rather their “indiscriminate use”, Rachel was often misquoted and accused of fearmongering, her work characterized as unbalanced, unscientific and hysterical. One pesticides company, threatening the publisher with a lawsuit, complained of “sinister influences”, suggesting the author was part of a Communist conspiracy to decrease the use of agricultural chemicals with the goal of reducing the U.S. food supply.

In fact, the research had been impeccable. Always the perfectionist, Rachel had ensured that every fact was checked by trusted colleagues and that every chapter had been reviewed by scientists of repute. Confident and restrained throughout, she was vindicated by the Committee’s report, which supported her arguments and which led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and widespread legislation to control pesticides. Rachel continued to receive many awards, medals and honourary degrees.

The author had felt a lifelong responsibility to make the most of her abilities to explain to others what she understood first intuitively, then scientifically – that humans are only a small part of a remarkable natural system that now needed respect and safeguarding from destruction.

Rachel died of cancer in Silver Spring, MD, on April 14, 1964. The Sense of Wonder, which first appeared in 1958 as the essay Help Your Child to Wonder, was published posthumously in 1965 as a short book.

Rachel Carson’s books have never gone out of print.

References:

• Brooks, Paul: The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work, Houghton Mifflin, Inc. (Boston, MA, 1972)
• Henricksson, John: Rachel Carson: The Environmental Movement, The Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CT, 1991)
• Lear, Linda: Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature, Henry Holt & Co., Inc. (New York, 1997) (Biographer Linda Lear provides a thorough and affectionate portrait of the author’s life, drawing on many articles, book reviews, private correspondence and personal recollections from individuals that played significant roles in Carson’s personal and professional life.)
  New York Times: Obituary, April 15, 1964
• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Rachel Carson: A Conservation Legacy