Early ChildhoodRachel Louise Carson was born May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania.
"Rachel Carson first discovered nature in the company of her mother, a devotee of the nature study movement. . . She loved to read and displayed an obvious talent for writing, publishing her first story in a children's literary magazine at the age of ten." -Linda Lear, Silent Spring Introduction "Famous with her classmates as a voracious reader and a superb writer, was an exceptional student. . . It was also said of Rachel that her mother awakened her everyday to hear the birds singing in the morning sunlight, and that Rachel spoke to them as she headed off to school."
-William Souder, The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson |
“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder … he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
-Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder |
Young Adult Years
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She spent many hours outside researching nature and believed education was essential. Carson attended Pennsylvania College for Women from 1925 to 1929. She then earned her Master's in Zoology from Johns Hopkins in 1932.
"Scholarships allowed her to study at Woods Hole Biological Laboratory, where she fell in love with the sea, and at Johns Hopkins University, where she was isolated, one of a handful of women in marine biology." -Linda Lear, Silent Spring Introduction |
Adult Life
Despite few women in science and the nation's worsening economy, Rachel pursued her interests.
"Carson was a scientist with a lyrical bent, who saw it as her mission to share her observations with a wider audience . . . She was a classic introvert who exhibited few of the typical qualities associated with leadership, like charisma and aggressiveness."
-Nancy F. Koehn, The New York Times
-Nancy F. Koehn, The New York Times
Rachel Carson spent much of her adult life using her research to write about environmental consciousness.
Carson published her first book, Under the Sea Wind, in 1941, but it did not sell well. In 1951, The Sea Around Us, which poetically described the sea, launched Carson into global fame. “How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind?” -Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962 Dorothy Freeman, a close friend of Carson's, corresponded regularly through letters.
"Because of the eleven years that I knew her, I feel that my whole life was enriched beyond understanding." -Dorothy Freeman in a talk about Carson at the University of Southern Maine, 1975 |
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