Rachel Carson – A JourneyRachel Carson – A Journey

• Born on May 27th, 1907

• The youngest child of Maria and Robert Carson

• Since childhood she loved books and reading; and wanted to become a writer

• In 1925, she joined the Pennsylvania College for Women

• She intended on majoring English and become a writer

• Her biology teacher, Miss Mary Scott Skinner, had great impact on her. Her biology class ignited Rachel Carson’s mind

• Although her creative energies were focused on biology, she was well known as a writer in her sophomore years

• Lines in Tennyson’s poem “ Locksley Hall” clarified her direction , telling her that the “vision splendid” she pursued lay with the sea

• She decided to become a marine biologist and Rachel completed her undergraduate program• with laurels

• She completed her master program in John Hopkins university

• She couldn’t continue her research program because of economic constraints

• She started her career as a radio script writer

• Later she joined the US Bureau of Fisheries as a junior scientist and rose to Chief Publication officer

• The fisheries research she could do as a scientist and her writing skill helped her to bring out the trilogy - Under the Sea Wind, The Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea

• She took early retirement from government service to become a full time science writer

• She became aware of many environmental problems of which use of pesticides without discretion was the serious one

• Water soil and the earth’s green mantle of plants make up the world that supports the animal life of the earth and she thought, “If I keep silent there won’t be any peace for me”

• Thus she started working on Silent Spring which changed the course of history in America

• When it was published in 1962 it was hailed and criticized widely

• On June 3rd, 1963 Rachel Carson gave her testimony before President John F. Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee, which submitted a report largely backing her scientific claims.

• Rachel Carson died on April 14, 1964 at the age of 56 due to cancer

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe

around us, theless taste we shall have for destruction.”

Rachel Carson(1907 – 1964)