I just met the most amazing person, and I can’t wait to tell you about her, but I’m pretty sure everybody else in my world met her years ago, read her books, discussed her work, sang her praises, and likely paid homage at one or more monuments to her life. So when I tell you who this amazing person is, I imagine you’ll react the way I’d react to someone who couldn’t wait to tell me about St. Francis, Helen Keller, or Martin Luther King Jr.
Really, dude? Where have you been?!
Okay. Here goes. I just met Rachel Carson and realized that I had somehow confused her with Annie Dillard.
WHAT?! EVERYBODY KNOWS RACHEL CARSON IS NOT ANNIE DILLARD. Dillard wrote Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Carson wrote Silent Spring.
And everybody’s read Silent Spring.
Not me.
But I just did, and just like that I am now enthralled with the soul and work of this amazing woman.
Rachel was born May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Maria, was a devout Presbyterian who embraced John Calvin’s (little known) idea that God is immanent in nature, or as Calvin put it: The natural world is the theater of God’s glory. She enrolled Rachel in the American Nature Study Movement and urged her to practice “reverence for all life.”
Rachel became a published author in 1941 (Under the Sea Wind), a marine biologist, and the second woman ever hired by the US Fish & Wildlife Service as a full-time professional.
In the early 1950s a friend wrote her a letter concerning the sudden silence of songbirds. Did Rachel know what might be causing their demise?
Rachel looked into it and didn’t stop looking. In 1962 she published her findings in a book and dedicated it to Albert Schweitzer.
Rachel alerted the world to the dangers of the indiscriminate use of pesticides, DDT being the most notorious but far from the only fatal toxin found in air, water, and soil, and slowly accumulating in the bodies of animals, including the human animal. Rachel was viciously attacked by the chemical industry and accused of being a communist. She held her ground even while she was quietly dying of cancer.
Rachel died in 1964, age 56.
Rachel Carson is rightfully called the Mother of the Environmental Movement.
I stand with those, like Margaret Atwood, who call Rachel Carson a saint.
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PS: 80 Dispatches from the Devil’s Domain and Let Love Arise available on Amazon. Please let your friends know.
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See Paula’s award winning photo on the home page. Posted July 11.
Thank you. Although I know who Rachel Carson is – I’ve been to NCTC – seen her picture, read her words, I’ve never read “Silent Spring”, but it’s time I did. “Nature is the theater of God’s glory”, and I see this & ponder it every day – yet there’s so much more to learn about the brave & brilliant souls working to protect & defend her. We are woven together in an intricate web of life, and I dearly appreciate being here, learning and growing, with you all.
Thank you! I agree that Rachel Carson was saint-like to have exposed the ubiquitous and lethal chemical pesticides industry. I remember how she was vilified in the sixties, today’s equivalent of “fake news”; “can’t trust scientists”; “a crazy woman”; and so forth. Plus ca change…? There are plenty of chemical toxins in today’s fruits and vegetables. Too many humans have stopped singing–and are resistant to learning.
Hey, Doctor Rev! Congratulations! This just goes to show that it’s never too late. Fortunately, I had a 10th grade biology teacher who assigned, “Silent Spring” as required reading. I should’ve re-read Carson years later and appreciated her prophetic masterpiece through adult eyes, but I haven’t. There’s so much to read and only so much time to do it. Nonetheless, life is for learning. Keep on gettin’ on, Doc! Life is all about a state of becoming so long as we’re passengers clinging to this spinning rock we call home. Onward!
As another person commented, “plus ca change”. 🙁
PS I didn’t remember she was marine biologist – thnx!
Rachel Carson is a timeless inspiration and earth-centered prophet. And, thank goodness, it’s never too late to learn about her! Annie Dillard, whom you also cited, speaks of the cosmos as a wondrous gift: “The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” Both women remind us to be responsible stewards!
Yes, Larry. Beautiful; thank you!
Dear Randy,
Using my well known power as a seer of the future, I predict that with the fires in the west, there will be an intellectual tidal wave of appreciation for Rachel during the next two years.
Thanks for reminding me that I need to read Rachel again. If you have not met Mary Oliver, look her up, especially her poem Wild Geese.
Welcome to the fan club! A number of her artifacts, including her typewriter, are on display at NCTC’s exhibition hall. Also recommend her book about the oceans, especially relevant today. Just recently I read an article by some blockhead saying that her work is a hoax (sound familiar?) and that DDT is just fine.
My mother was an admirer of Rachel Carson. I remember seeing Silent Spring at the kitchen table where Mom read in the morning. Before Silent Spring, Mom would not let us ride our bikes behind Smoky Joe on the Navy base in Puerto Rico. There was a mosquito truck where great puffs of smoky insecticide would fill the air as it drove up and down our residential streets. Mom said to run home and get inside, if we ever saw Smoky Joe start his rounds. She and Rachel knew something many others didn’t pay attention to. So glad you read about her, Randy. I think I will find my cope and read again. There is a documentary about her on PBS American Masters. Thank you for our wonderful Devil’s Gift. We love it.