Rachel Carson reading in the woods near her home. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
School period
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1917
Springdale, Pennsylvania, United States
Carson as a child.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1919
Springdale, Pennsylvania, United States
Carson as a child, reading to her dog Candy.
College/University
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1926
1 Woodland Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, United States
Rachel Carson at Pennsylvania College for Women.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1928
1 Woodland Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, United States
Yearbook photo of the literary club Carson was a part of.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1929
86 Water St, Woods Hole, MA 02543, United States
Rachel Carson at Woods Hole.
Career
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1952
United States
Authors Marianne Moore, James Jones, and Rachel Carson receiving awards for their works. Photo by Leonard Mccombe.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1952
Maryland, United States
Author and environmentalist Rachel Carson at her typewriter. Photo by Hank Walker.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1960
United States
Dorothy Freeman and Rachel Carson. Around 1960.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1961
United States
Biologist/author Rachel Carson standing seaside, examining specimen in jar. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1961
Maryland, United States
Portrait of American marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, Maryland, September 24, 1962. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1961
United States
Portrait of American marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson as she sits on rocky outcrop, her hand on her chin, 1961. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1961
United States
Rachel Carson in 1961. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
485 Madison Ave New York, NY 10022, USA
American biologist and natural-history writer Rachel Carson, interviewed by American news reporter Eric Sevareid on her book 'Silent Spring,' a critical examination of the effects of pesticide use which was recognized as launching the global environmental movement, for an episode of 'CBS Reports' in her study at home, Maryland, November 29, 1962. The episode, titled 'The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,' originally aired on April 3, 1963.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
485 Madison Ave New York, NY 10022, USA
American biologist and natural-history writer Rachel Carson discusses her book 'Silent Spring,' a critical examination of the effects of pesticide use which was recognized as launching the global environmental movement, during an interview for 'CBS Reports' held in her study at home, Maryland, November 29, 1962. The episode, titled 'The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,' originally aired on April 3, 1963.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
American marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson works at a desk in her office, Maryland, August 1962. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
American marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson collects mail from her sidewalk mailbox, Maryland, August 1962. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Biologist and author Rachel Carson peering through a microscope at home. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Rachel Carson at home with pet cat Moppet. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
United States
Rachel Carson birdwatching with fellow Audobon Society members in park. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Rachel Carsonholding camera with children and dog in woods near her home. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Rachel Carson holding her German Kine Exakta camera in the woods near her home. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Rachel Carson sitting at microscope as she prepares to examine tissue on a petrie dish at her home. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
United States
rRachel Carson with fellow naturalists on nature walk. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Rachel Carson with pen in hand as she sits at desk piled w. notebooks in her study at home. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Boothbay Harbor, Maine, United States
Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, at her summer home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1962
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Rachel Carson reading in the woods near her home. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Gallery of Rachel Carson
1963
Washington, D.C., United States
Environmentalist writer Rachel Carson in 1963.
Achievements
Membership
American Academy of Arts and Letters
Rachel Carson was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Rachel Carson was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Portrait of American marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson as she sits on rocky outcrop, her hand on her chin, 1961. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
American biologist and natural-history writer Rachel Carson, interviewed by American news reporter Eric Sevareid on her book 'Silent Spring,' a critical examination of the effects of pesticide use which was recognized as launching the global environmental movement, for an episode of 'CBS Reports' in her study at home, Maryland, November 29, 1962. The episode, titled 'The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,' originally aired on April 3, 1963.
American biologist and natural-history writer Rachel Carson discusses her book 'Silent Spring,' a critical examination of the effects of pesticide use which was recognized as launching the global environmental movement, during an interview for 'CBS Reports' held in her study at home, Maryland, November 29, 1962. The episode, titled 'The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,' originally aired on April 3, 1963.
American marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson collects mail from her sidewalk mailbox, Maryland, August 1962. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
(The special mystery and beauty of the sea is the setting ...)
The special mystery and beauty of the sea is the setting for Rachel Carson's memorable portrait of the seabirds and sea creatures that inhabit the eastern coasts of North America. In a sequence of riveting adventures along the shore, within the open sea, and down in the twilight depths, Rachel Carson introduces us to the winds and currents of the ocean as revealed in the lives of Scomber, the mackerel and Anguilla, the eel. Life for them a continuous miracle, a series of life-and-death victories played out among strange and often terrifying life forms far below the surface of the sea. Under the Sea Wind is a classic wilderness adventure to which all nature writing is compared. The hero of Under the Sea Wind is soon seen to be life itself, that quicksilver prize granted, for a brief time only, to the clever and the fortunate.
(Originally published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of...)
Originally published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of the most influential books ever written about the natural world. Rachel Carson's ability to combine scientific insight with poetic prose catapulted her book to the top of The New York Times best-seller list, where it remained for more than a year and a half. Ultimately it sold well over a million copies, was translated into 28 languages, inspired an Academy Award-winning documentary, and won both the National Book Award and the John Burroughs Medal. The Sea Around Us remains as fresh today as when it first appeared over six decades ago.
(Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring, writes this b...)
Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring, writes this book focusing on the plants and invertebrates surviving in the Atlantic zones between the lowest and the highest tides, between Newfoundland and the Florida Keys. It's Appendix and Index make it a great reference tool for those interested in plant and animal life around tidepools.
(Now recognized as one of the most influential books of th...)
Now recognized as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, "Silent Spring" exposed the destruction of wildlife through the widespread use of pesticides. Despite condemnation in the press and heavy-handed attempts by the chemical industry to ban the book, Rachel Carson succeeded in creating a new public awareness of the environment which led to changes in government and inspired the ecological movement.
The Sense of Wonder: A Celebration of Nature for Parents and Children
(In 1955, acclaimed conservationist Rachel Carson - author...)
In 1955, acclaimed conservationist Rachel Carson - author of Silent Spring - began work on an essay that she would come to consider one of her life’s most important projects. Her grandnephew, Roger Christie, had visited Carson that summer at her cottage in Maine, and together they had wandered the surrounding woods and tide pools. Teaching Roger about the natural wonders around them, Carson began to see them anew herself, and wanted to relate that same magical feeling to others who might hope to introduce a child to the beauty of nature.
Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964
(A correspondence between Rachel Carson and her Maine summ...)
A correspondence between Rachel Carson and her Maine summer neighbor spans the writing of The Edge of the Sea and Silent Spring and offers insight into Carson's private life and her creative and political struggles.
Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson
(When Rachel Carson died of cancer in 1964, her four books...)
When Rachel Carson died of cancer in 1964, her four books, including the environmental classic Silent Spring, had made her one of the most famous people in America. This trove of previously uncollected writings is a priceless addition to our knowledge of Rachel Carson, her affinity with the natural world, and her life.
(Novelists, poets, artists, anthropologists, traditional e...)
Novelists, poets, artists, anthropologists, traditional elders, philosophers, and naturalists come together to create a geological portrait of the Earth - from the violence of earthquakes and erupting volcanoes to epochal patterns in stone and the sinuous flow of rivers. With insights from many cultures and across time, Bedrock wonderfully illuminates the geology of our home planet.
Rachel Louise Carson was an American biologist, writer, scientist, and ecologist. She was well known for her writings on environmental pollution and the natural history of the sea.
Background
Rachel Louise Carson was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania, United States to the family of an insurance salesman Robert Warden Carson and Maria Frazier McLean. Carson early developed a deep interest in the natural world. Her mother bequeathed to her a life-long love of nature and the living world that she expressed first as a writer and later as a student of marine biology. In 1918, Saint Nicholas, a magazine for young writers, published her story, "A Battle in the Clouds," which was set in World War I. She published several more pieces in the magazine, and her interest in writing continued to grow.
Education
Rachel Carson attended Springdale Grammar School, Springdale High School, and Parnassus High School, from which she graduated in 1925. She received a scholarship to attend Pennsylvania College for Women today known as Chatham University), and received her Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude in 1929. She studied both English and biology, but was uncertain which to pursue. The summer of that same year Carson earned a fellowship at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and with the help of Mary Scott Skinker, her biology teacher in college, Carson was accepted to the graduate program in zoology at Johns Hopkins University.
In 1930 Carson was able to assist in the genetics lab of Dr. Raymond Pearl. Carson graduated from the program in 1932 with a degree in zoology, continuing at Johns Hopkins as a doctoral student until 1934.
From 1929 to 1936 Rachel Carson taught in the Johns Hopkins summer school and pursued postgraduate studies at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. After the deaths of her father in 1935 and her sister in 1937, Carson and her mother became responsible for her sister’s children. Carson moved with them to Silver Spring, Maryland, where she lived for the remainder of her life. She worked as an editor of radio broadcasts for the United States Bureau of Fisheries and as a junior aquatic biologist under District Chief Elmer Higgins from 1936 to 1939. During this time she wrote columns for Baltimore Sunday Sun on topics concerning the fisheries, and her article “Undersea,” published by Atlantic Monthly in 1937, prompted Simon and Schuster to publish Under the Sea-Wind: A Naturalist’s Picture of the Ocean in 1941.
By 1946, Carson was an aquatic biologist and director of the publishing program of the Fish and Wildlife Services. She worked to establish a Nature Conservancy branch in Maine, became director of the Washington, District of Columbia Audubon Society, and wrote several magazine articles. After her second book, The Sea Around Us (1951), was published Carson was able to build a cottage on Southport Island, Maine. In 1955 Carson published The Edge of the Sea, a guide to identifying sea creatures found in tidal pools, marshes and shallows. After a break from writing due to family and health concerns, in 1962 Carson published her most important, groundbreaking book, Silent Spring. Documenting in detail for the first time the effects of pesticides and insecticides on the natural world, Silent Spring is widely credited with giving birth to the environmental movement in this country and around the world.
Rachel Carson was raised by a devout Presbyterian mother, whose father, the Reverend Daniel M.B. McLean, had been a learned, leading minister. Although she did not attend a particular church in her adult life, Carson read widely in modern theology and ethics including such writers as Paul Tillich, Erich Fromm, and the leading Protestant leader of modernism and social action, the Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick of the Riverside Church in New York City. Carson was also heavily influenced by the leading humanitarian of her time, the Biblical scholar, theologian, Bach scholar, and organist, Dr. Albert Schweitzer.
Politics
Rachel Carson didn't directly express her political views. Some critics even that she was a communist.
Views
Disturbed by the profligate use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, Carson reluctantly changed her focus in order to warn the public about the long-term effects of misusing pesticides. Carson’s prophetic Silent Spring (1962) was first serialized in The New Yorker and then became a bestseller, creating worldwide awareness of the dangers of environmental pollution. The outlook of the environmental movement of the 1960s and early ’70s was generally pessimistic, reflecting a pervasive sense of "civilization malaise" and a conviction that Earth’s long-term prospects were bleak. Silent Spring suggested that the planetary ecosystem was reaching the limits of what it could sustain. Carson 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. In Silent Spring (1962) she challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.
Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in government as an alarmist, but courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. Testifying before Congress in 1963, Carson called for new policies to protect human health and the environment.
As a scientist and as an observant human being, Carson was increasingly disturbed by the overwhelming effects of technology upon the natural world.
Quotations:
"I suppose my thinking began to be affected soon after atomic science was firmly established. It was pleasant to believe that much of Nature was forever beyond the tampering reach of man: I have now opened my eyes and my mind. I may not like what I see, but it does no good to ignore it."
"I think we are challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves."
"The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history or fiction. It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science."
"If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry."
"The real wealth of the Nation lies in the resources of the earth - soil, water, forests, minerals, and wildlife."
"Man's future welfare and probably even his survival depend upon his learning to live in harmony, rather than in combat, with these forces."
"I like to define biology as the history of the earth and all its life - past, present, and future."
Membership
Rachel Carson was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
American Academy of Arts and Letters
,
United States
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
,
United States
Personality
Rachel Carson was reserved, soft-spoken, and shy. She felt more comfortable behind her writing desk or wading in tide pools than giving presentations or interviews. But Carson was a trained scientist with a deep love of nature. And she had a gift for making even the most complicated scientific information understandable to readers. So, when she learned that there was a problem that could harm the natural world, Carson could not remain silent.
Physical Characteristics:
Rachel Carson died in 1964 after a long battle against breast cancer.
Interests
gardening
Writers
Beatrix Potter, Gene Stratton-Porter, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson
Connections
Rachel Carson remained single throughout her lifetime, even though she raised her two nieces and adopted her grand-nephew.