Book Recommendation: Rachel Carson, Witness for Nature
Rachel Carson, perhaps best known for her groundbreaking book, Silent Spring, which exposed the dangers of chemicals like DDT, was a quiet and intensely private individual. Yet, coupled with these traits, Linda Lear’s biography (Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature) demonstrates that Carson possessed incredible strength and conviction. These characteristics ultimately led her to place herself under scrutiny as she challenged the powerful chemical industry. While Lear seems somewhat protective of Carson, she does a thorough job of recording Carson’s life and influences, and explores what compels a person as weary of the public eye as Carson was to put herself in the spotlight. In an era in which admirable people like Rachel Carson are being forgotten, Lear should be commended for bringing her life and work back to the forefront.
Recommended by Martina Duncan
July 11th, 2010 at 6:57 am
thank you for recommending my biography, now repreinted 2009 (different cover) by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I am hoping to entice reading and thinking people to understand Carson as more than someone who protested the miuse of chemical pesticides, but someone who was vastly concerned about protecting our oceans and the tinest life forms that abound in water.
With the 50th anniv of Silent Spring soon upon us, you will see why I might have been a bit protective of her when the venomous, hatefilled comments start up again. My biography tries to
tell her life with objectivity, but also with appreciation of her mission and her prophecy.
Please also see http://www.rachelcarson.org and get involved. Many thanks and great appreciation for the Maine Humanities Council and its work.