69 Facts About Rachel Carson

Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose sea trilogy and book Silent Spring are credited with advancing marine conservation and the global environmental movement.

Rachel Carson's widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her a US National Book Award, recognition as a gifted writer and financial security.

Late in the 1950s, Rachel Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially some problems she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides.

Rachel Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.

Rachel Carson was born on May 27,1907, on a family farm near Springdale, Pennsylvania, located by the Allegheny River near Pittsburgh.

Rachel Carson was the daughter of Maria Frazier and Robert Warden Carson, an insurance salesman.

Rachel Carson spent a lot of time exploring around her family's 65-acre farm.

Rachel Carson enjoyed reading St Nicholas Magazine, which carried her first published stories, the works of Beatrix Potter, the novels of Gene Stratton-Porter, and in her teen years, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Rachel Carson attended Springdale's small school through tenth grade, and then completed high school in nearby Parnassus, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1925 at the top of her class of 44 students.

In high school, Rachel Carson was said to have been somewhat of a loner.

Rachel Carson gained admission to Pennsylvania College for Women, now Chatham University, in Pittsburgh, where she originally studied English but switched her major to biology in January 1928.

Rachel Carson continued contributing to the school's student newspaper and literary supplement.

Rachel Carson had intended to continue for a doctorate, however in 1934 Carson was forced to leave Johns Hopkins to search for a full-time teaching position to help support her family during the Great Depression.

In 1935, Rachel Carson's father died suddenly, worsening their already critical financial situation and leaving Rachel Carson to care for her aging mother.

At the urging of her undergraduate biology mentor Mary Scott Skinker, Rachel Carson secured a temporary position with the US Bureau of Fisheries, where she wrote radio copy for a series of weekly educational broadcasts called Romance Under the Waters.

The series of 52 seven-minute programs focused on aquatic life and was intended to generate public interest in fish biology and the bureau's work, a task that several writers before Rachel Carson had not managed.

Rachel Carson began submitting articles on marine life in the Chesapeake Bay, based on her research for the series, to local newspapers and magazines.

Rachel Carson earned extra money as a lecturer at the University of Maryland's Dental and Pharmacy Schools and Johns Hopkins University.

Rachel Carson's supervisor had deemed it too good for that purpose.

Rachel Carson attempted to leave the Bureau in 1945.

DDT was one of Rachel Carson's many writing interests at the time, but editors found the subject unappealing; she published nothing on DDT until 1962.

Rachel Carson rose within the Fish and Wildlife Service, and in 1945 was supervising a small writing staff.

The Sea Around Us remained on The New York Times Bestseller List for 86 weeks, was abridged by Reader's Digest, won the 1952 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the John Burroughs Medal, and resulted in Rachel Carson being awarded two honorary doctorates.

Rachel Carson licensed a documentary film based on it, The Sea, whose success led to republication of Under the Sea Wind, which became a bestseller.

Rachel Carson was inundated with requests for speaking engagements, fan mail and other correspondence regarding The Sea Around Us, along with work on the script that she had secured the right to review.

However, Rachel Carson was so embittered by the experience that she never again sold film rights to her work.

Freeman had written to Rachel Carson welcoming her to the area when she had heard that the famous author was to become her neighbor.

Many of these were published in the book Always, Rachel Carson, published in 1995 by Beacon Press.

Some believe Freeman and Rachel Carson's relationship was romantic in nature.

Rachel Carson's wishes were carried out by an organizing committee, including her agent, her editor, and Dorothy Freeman.

Early in 1953, Rachel Carson began library and field research on the ecology and organisms of the Atlantic shore.

Rachel Carson considered an environment-themed book project tentatively titled Remembrance of the Earth and became involved with The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups.

Rachel Carson took on the responsibility for Roger when she adopted him, along with caring for her aging mother.

Rachel Carson moved to Silver Spring, Maryland to care for Roger and spent much of 1957 putting together a new living situation and studying specific environmental threats.

Rachel Carson was not the first or the only person to raise concern about DDT, but her combination of "scientific knowledge and poetic writing" reached a broad audience and helped to focus opposition to DDT use.

However, the United States federal government's 1957 gypsy moth, now called spongy moth, eradication program prompted Rachel Carson to devote her research and her next book to pesticides and environmental poisons.

The Audubon Naturalist Society actively opposed such spraying programs and recruited Rachel Carson to help make public the government's exact spraying practices and the related research.

Rachel Carson began the four-year project of what would become Silent Spring by gathering examples of environmental damage attributed to DDT.

Rachel Carson attempted to enlist others to join the cause, such as essayist E B White and several journalists and scientists.

However, when The New Yorker commissioned a long and well-paid article on the topic from Rachel Carson, she began considering writing more than simply the introduction and conclusion as planned; soon, it was a solo project.

Rachel Carson took advantage of her connections with many government scientists, who supplied her with confidential information.

From reading the scientific literature and interviewing scientists, Rachel Carson found two scientific camps when it came to pesticides: those who dismissed the possible danger of pesticide spraying barring conclusive proof, and those who were open to the possibility of harm and willing to consider alternative methods such as biological pest control.

Rachel Carson found significant support and extensive evidence from a group of biodynamic agriculture organic market gardeners, their adviser, Dr Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, other contacts, and their suite of legal actions against the US Government.

Rachel Carson wrote of the content as "a gold mine of information" and says, "I feel guilty about the mass of your material I have here" and makes multiple references to Pfeiffer and his correspondence.

Rachel Carson attended the subsequent FDA hearings on revising pesticide regulations; she came away discouraged by the aggressive tactics of the chemical industry representatives, which included expert testimony that was firmly contradicted by the bulk of the scientific literature she had been studying.

Rachel Carson's research was delayed by revision work for a new edition of The Sea Around Us and by a collaborative photo essay with Erich Hartmann.

Rachel Carson accuses the chemical industry of intentionally spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically.

Rachel Carson predicted increased consequences in the future, especially as targeted pests develop pesticide resistance.

Rachel Carson was undergoing radiation therapy to combat her spreading cancer and expected to have little energy to devote to defending her work and responding to critics.

Rachel Carson attended the White House Conference on Conservation in May 1962; Houghton Mifflin distributed proof copies of Silent Spring to many of the delegates and promoted the upcoming New Yorker serialization.

However, Rachel Carson had made it clear she was not advocating the banning or complete withdrawal of helpful pesticides but was instead encouraging responsible and carefully managed use with an awareness of the chemicals' impact on the entire ecosystem.

Pesticide use became a major public issue, especially after the CBS Reports TV special The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson that aired April 3,1963.

In one of her last public appearances, Carson testified before President John F Kennedy's Science Advisory Committee.

Rachel Carson's health was steadily declining as her cancer outpaced the radiation therapy, with only brief periods of remission.

Rachel Carson spoke as much as she was physically able including a notable appearance on The Today Show and speeches at several dinners held in her honor.

Rachel Carson died of a heart attack on April 14,1964, in her home in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Rachel Carson's body was cremated, and some of her ashes were buried beside her mother at Parklawn Memorial Gardens in Rockville, Maryland.

In 1965, Rodell arranged for the publication of an essay Rachel Carson had intended to expand into a book: The Sense of Wonder.

Rachel Carson's work had a powerful impact on the environmental movement.

Additionally, the way photos of Rachel Carson were used to portray her are often questioned because of few representations of her engaging in work typical of a scientist, but instead of her leisure activities.

The creation of the Environmental Protection Agency by the Nixon Administration in 1970 addressed another concern that Rachel Carson had brought to light.

Until then, the same agency was responsible both for regulating pesticides and promoting the concerns of the agriculture industry; Rachel Carson saw this as a conflict of interest since the agency was not responsible for effects on wildlife or other environmental concerns beyond farm policy.

In 1973, Rachel Carson was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Rachel Carson College is the first college at the university to bear a woman's name.

Carson's birthplace and childhood home in Springdale, Pennsylvania, now known as the Rachel Carson Homestead, became a National Register of Historic Places site and the nonprofit Rachel Carson Homestead Association was created in 1975 to manage it.

The Rachel Carson Room is close to the EPA Administrator's office.

Rachel Carson is a frequent namesake for prizes awarded by philanthropic, educational and scholarly institutions.

The Rachel Carson Prize, founded in Stavanger, Norway in 1991, is awarded to women who have made a contribution in the field of environmental protection.

Rachel Carson was featured during the "HerStory" video tribute to notable women on U2's tour in 2017 for the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree during a performance of "Ultraviolet " from the band's 1991 album Achtung Baby.