Rachel Carson Facts

Rachel Carson Facts
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 to April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist and conservationist. Her book, Silent Spring, was instrumental in advancing the global environmental movement.
Interesting Rachel Carson Facts:
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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