Rachel Carson Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Rachel Carson
OCCUPATION: Environmental Activist, Biologist, Academic Author, Journalist
BIRTH DATE: May 27, 1907
DEATH DATE: April 14, 1964
EDUCATION: Johns Hopkins University, Chatham University

PLACE OF BIRTH: Springdale, Pennsylvania
PLACE OF DEATH: Silver Spring, Maryland

more about Rachel

Best Known For

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, environmentalist and writer who alerted the world to the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides.

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Rachel Louise Carson

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Rachel Louise Carson. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 07:40, May 27, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/rachel-carson-9239741

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Synopsis

Biologist Rachel Carson alerted the world to the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides. Her best-known book, Silent Spring, led to a presidential commission that largely endorsed her findings and helped to shape a growing environmental consciousness. Carson died of cancer in 1964 and is remembered as an early activist who worked to preserve the world for future generations.

Quotes

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, 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

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.

– Rachel Carson

The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery - not over nature but of ourselves.

– Rachel Carson

Profile

Marine biologist, environmentalist, and writer. Born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Rachel Carson first alerted the world about the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides. She grew up on a Pennsylvania farm, which gave her a lot of first-hand knowledge of nature and wildlife. She graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College) in 1929, and went on to further studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Rachel Carson taught at the University of Maryland for five years before joining the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1936. Her first book, Under the Sea-Wind (1941), described marine life in clear, elegant, and non-technical prose. She retained her government job through the 1940s, in part to help support her mother and her sister's two orphaned daughters. In 1951 she published The Sea Around Us, which became an immediate best-seller and freed her from financial worry.

During the 1950s Rachel Carson conducted research into the effects of pesticides on the food chain, published in her most influential work, Silent Spring (1962), which condemned the indiscriminate use of pesticides, especially DDT (later banned). The book led to a presidential commission that largely endorsed her findings, and helped shape a growing environmental consciousness.

Rachel Carson died of cancer on April 14, 1964. She is remembered as an early environmental activist who worked to preserve the world for future generations.