Rachel Carson Facts
Rachel Carson Facts
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| Interesting Rachel Carson Facts: |
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| Rachel Carson was born on a 65 acre farm near Springdale, Pennsylvania. |
| She began writing at the age of eight and published her first story when she was ten. |
| In 1929 she graduated magna cum laude from the Pennsylvania College for Women which is known today as Chatham University. |
| She continued her studies in zoology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University. |
| In 1932 she earned her Master's Degree in zoology with a dissertation project on the embryonic development of the pronephros in fish. |
| The death of her father and the need to care for her aging mother forced her to leave school without earning her PhD. |
| She accepted a temporary job with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries where she wrote a series of radio scripts on marine biology entitled, "Romance Under the Waters." |
| The 52 programs were such a success that in 1936 she became the second woman to be hired by the Bureau of Fisheries. |
| Her job at the Bureau was to analyze and report data on fish populations. |
| She used her research and her considerable writing skills to write popular articles for The Baltimore Sun, Nature and The Atlantic Monthly. |
| In 1945 Carson began to study DDT but, due to lack of interest on the part of publishers, did not publish on the subject until 1962. |
| She advanced in her career at the Fish and Wildlife Service and became chief editor of publications in 1949. |
| In 1948 she took on Marie Rodell as her literary agent and turned to full time writing. |
| In 1952 Oxford University Press published The Sea Around Us, which was a history of life in the oceans. |
| The chapter titled, "The Birth of an Island" won the American Association for the Advancement of Science George Westinghouse Science Writing Prize. |
| The book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 86 weeks and won the 1952 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the Burroughs Medal. |
| In 1953 she began researching the ecology and sea life of the Atlantic shore. |
| In October, 1955 Houghton Mifflin published The Edge of the Sea, which was the third of her books on marine biology. |
| In 1957 the federal government launched a gypsy moth eradication program which caused Carson to research the effects of widespread pesticide use on the environment. |
| She studied the effects of chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates. |
| The Washington, D.C. chapter of the Audubon Society hired Carson to publicize the spraying program and its damage on wildlife. |
| In 1962 Houghton Mifflin published her most successful book, Silent Spring, which documented the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment. |
| In 2012 Silent Spring was named a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society. |
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