Rachel was born the youngest of three children
on May 27, 1907 in the town of Springdale, Pennsylvania, on the
Allegheny River. She saw beauty in nature, and her mother
encouraged her to enjoy it. When she was in school she found she
had a natural talent for writing. Throughout grade and high
school Rachel was given many awards for her writing.
She graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (later renamed
Catham College) in 1929. Rachel then studied at Woods Hole Marine
Biological Laboratory to learn about the sea. Rachel then went to
John Hopkins University and received her M.A. in zoology in 1932.
She taught zoology at the University of Maryland from 1931 to
1936.
In 1936 Rachel was the first woman to take and pass the civil
service test, and later that same year she was hired by the U.S.
Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts. That was the
beginning of her fifteen year rise of editor and scientist. She
became chief of all publications for U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (the successor of the Bureau of Fisheries). She wrote
pamphlets on conservation and natural resources, and edited
scientific articles.
During the `40’s, Rachel started to write books: Under
the Sea Wind, 1941, Food from the Sea: Fish and Shellfish
of New England, 1943, Food from the Sea: Fish and
Shellfish of the South Atlantic, 1944, and The Sea Around
Us, 1951. In 1952, Rachel resigned from her job to give more
time to writing. In 1955 she wrote The Edge of the Sea, Our
Ever Changing Shore in 1957, and in 1965, The Sense of
Wonder. These books made known to the public as a biologist
and writer.
Silent Spring, her most famous book, was started in 1957.
It brought to light the long term effects of pesticides to the
food web as a whole. When it was published in 1962, it started a
chain of events that led to laws passed in Congress and around
the world that restricted the use of chemicals. Rachel was
attacked by the chemical industry but coolly and expertly spoke
out about the true dangers and possible future of the environment
if use of chemicals was not changed. Carson called for new
policies to protect people and the environment when she testified
before Congress in 1963.Two years later, Rachel Carson died of
bone cancer on April 14, 1964.