Silent Spring

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin, 1994 - Medical - 368 pages
"In 1962, when Silent Spring was first published, 'environment' was not even an entry in the vocabulary of public policy. In a few cities, especially Los Angeles, smog had become a cause of concern, albeit more because of its appearance than because of its threat to public health. Conservation--the precursor of environmentalism--had been mentioned during the 1960 Democratic and Republican conventions, but only in passing and almost entirely in the context of national parks and natural resources. And except for a few scattered entries in largely inaccessible scientific journals, there was virtually no public dialogue about the growing, invisible dangers of DDT and other pesticides and chemicals. Silent Spring came as a cry in the wilderness, a deeply felt, thoroughly researched, and brilliantly written argument that changed the course of history. Without this book, the environmental movement might have been long delayed or never have developed at all."--Introduction, p. xv.

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Contents

A FABLE FOR TOMORROW
1
ELIXIRS OF DEATH
15
SURFACE WATERS AND UNDERGROUND SEAS
39
Copyright

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About the author (1994)

Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She received a B.A. from the Pennsylvania College for Women in 1929 and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1932. After undertaking postgraduate work at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, she assumed a position as staff biologist at the University of Maryland in 1931. Five years later, she was appointed aquatic biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, which later became the Fish and Wildlife Service, and became editor-in-chief of its publications in 1949. Her first book, Under the Sea Wind, was published in 1941. Her next book, The Sea Around Us, won the National Book Award. With her increased success as a writer, she resigned from her position with the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1952 to devote all her time to writing. Her other works included The Edge of the Sea and Silent Spring. She received many honors including the John Burroughs Medal from the John Burroughs Memorial Association; the Frances K. Hutchinson Medal of the Garden Clubs of America; the Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Department of Interior; the Audubon Medal of the National Audubon Society; the gold medal of the New York Zoological Society; and the conservationist of the year award from the National Wildlife Federation. She died of cancer on April 14, 1964. In 1969 the U.S. Department of the Interior named the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine in her honor.

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