Rachel L. Carson (1907-1964) earned a graduate degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins in 1932, in an era when few women went to college. She was the first woman to pass the civil service exam and went on to work with the Fish and Wildlife Service, where she became chief editor of publications. Her gift for writing about technical science in clear, poetic prose eventually led to a full time writing career, culminating with her controversial Silent Spring, one of the most influential books of the century. She is often called the mother of the modern environmental movement. Two years after Silent Spring was published she died of cancer, possibly due to the very pesticides she warned against in her book.
First published in 1962, Silent Spring can singlehandedly be credited with sounding the alarm and raising awareness of humankind's collective impact on its own future through chemical pollution. No other book has so strongly influenced the environmental c...[SEE MORE]