Cove r So ry

Rachel Carson Huan EcologIst

Rachel Carson, who graces our cover, deserves alarm and anger, putting literary skill second to the much of the credit for bringing the public's atten- task of frightening and arousing her readers." Fur- tion to ecological issues. We have chosen her as the thermore, the anonymous writer referred through- first of eight famous women biologists who will be out to , experts and technically informed

featured in this and the next seven issues. In one of people as if Carson were not among them. Just so Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/46/6/302/41459/4447854.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 our recent courses entitled "Two Cultures, Four Ep- your students won't have to go looking, we share ochs," we were shocked to learn that only one stu- the following short biography. dent in the whole class had ever heard of Rachel Rachel Carson was born in Springdale, Pennsyl- Carson. Upon further investigation, this ignorance vania on , 1907. She was raised in Spring- seemed widespread even among undergraduate bi- dale and Parnassus, another local town. Following ology majors. Thus, the proverbial "Two Cultures" high school, she entered the Pennsylvania College split seems to extend into our own scientific culture for Women at . Her original intention as well. Hence, we felt that we might share the was to major in communications and become a concerns, the contributions, and the difficulties that writer. However, a course in led her to Rachel Carson faced in educating the public about major in biology. After graduating in 1929, she the panorama of human . went to Johns Hopkins where she received her mas- Most people know Rachel Carson as the author of ter's degree in 1932. Her graduate education was , the 1962 bestseller which discussed the extended by work at the Marine Biological Labora- effects of abusing . Since she died of can- tory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Thus, her grad- cer in 1964, she did not live to see a whole envi- uate education was obtained at two of the most ronmental movement or . However, few prestigious institutions in America. people realize the tremendous accomplishments In 1936, she accepted the aforementioned job which she did see in her own time or the resistance with the United States Bureau of Fisheries, later to which she received even from our own quarters. become the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. At this "When I found out that Rachel Carson was looked point in Rachel Carson's life, her dual interests in upon with suspicion by the scientific community be- biology and writing came together and developed cause she did not have a Ph.D. and because she was around themes related to the environment. She be- so deeply concerned with educating the public, I came editor and chief of the Bureau in 1947 and laughed and I cried. Here was somebody who had continued in that position until 1952 when she re- done more than anybody else I was aware of to in- signed to devote all her time and talents to writing. tegrate science with public concerns, and she was In 1941, her first book, titled Under the Sea-Wind, mistrusted and put down!" (Arditti, 1980). This is was published. Though the book had good reviews, well born out in Paul Brooks' (1974) biography and it was relatively unnoticed by the public. It was late in Frank Graham, Jr.'s (1970) update of her work. in the 1940s before she began her second book. The Margaret Rossiter's (1982) chapter entitled "Govern- Sea Around Us, published in 1951 gained wide ac- ment Employment: Paper Reforms but Expanded claim. Carson followed this book with The Edge of Segregation" cites Rachel Carson as one of her ex- the Sea (1955). All the reviews of Rachel Carson's amples: "Rachel Carson, with a master's degree in work support the talent she had for expressing a , was probably the first woman at sensitivity toward while presenting scientific the Fish and Wildlife Service when she became a information in an interesting manner. 'junior aquatic biologist' there in 1936." Despite the Silent Spring directed attention to the negative ef- public knowledge that Rachel Carson was the win- fects of pesticides. Carson warned that the indis- ner of a for one of her three criminate use of chemicals could still the songs of earlier books, a Time (1962) writer could reduce her birds and the leaping of fish and linger on in the to diminutive status and an overly emotional wom- soil. Society could soon experience a silent spring. an by statlng that she had "taken up her pen in The book caused intense debate. In many cases,

302 THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 46, NO. 6, SEPTEMBER 1984 Rachel Carson had gone beyond the available evi- dwelt with such awareness and understanding in dence and suggested effects for which she had little the house of life" (Brooks, 1972). empirical data. Predictably, industry attacked the book while defending their products. The govern- References ment began investigations of DDT and other Anonymous. 1962. "Pesticides: The price for ," pesticides. Silent Spring and Rachel Carson had the Time 80 (13):45-48 (September 28). power to gain national attention and make her Arditti, R. 1980. "Feminism and Science," In Arditti, R., conviction ours. During a Congressional hearing she Brennan, P., and Cavrak, S. (eds.), Science and Libera- stated: "I deeply believe that we in this generation tion. Boston: South End Press, p. 363. Brooks, P. 1972. The house of life: RachelCarson at work. must come to terms with nature." Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. The legacy of Rachel Carson continues beyond Carson, R. 1941. Under the sea-wind. New York: Simon her death on April 14, 1964 at the age of 56. For and Schuster. those who supported the . 1951. . New York: Oxford she became a symbol of sanity and the University Press: New York. . 1955. The edge of the sea. Boston: Houghton spokeswoman of their cause. For those who doubt- Mifflin Company. ed the harmful effects of pesticides, she became a

. 1962. Silent spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/46/6/302/41459/4447854.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 very respected adversary. Battles have been fought Company. and won on many sides of numerous environmen- Church, B. 1971. RachelLouise Carson: A bibliographyof her tal issues. In the process, our awareness and values life and works. (Privately distributed.) Graham, F., Jr. 1970. Since silent spring. Boston: have been altered in the two decades since Rachel Houghton Mifflin Company. Carson's most important book. "When she began Rossiter, M.W. 1982. Womenscientists in America:Struggles writing, the term 'environment' had few of the and Strategies in 1940. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer- connotations it has today. Conservation was not yet sity Press, p. 233. a political force. To the public at large the word Whorton, J. 1974. Before silent spring. Princeton: Prince- ton Press. 'ecology' . . . was unknown, as was the concept it University stood for. This concept, however, is central to ev- John Jungck erything that Rachel Carson wrote. Few of us have Rodger Bybee

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