Rachel Carson

This account of the effects of pesticides on the environment launched the environmental movement in America.

Here is a trove of Carson writing never before published or collected, uncovered by Linda Lear, author of the recent and acclaimed Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. Included are examples of her early and often remarkable nature writing for newspapers and for the Fish and Wildlife Service; journal observations on shore life; letters, including the "Lost Woods" correspondence concerning her efforts to save land in her beloved Maine, and another, written to her physician near the end of her life, that reveals Carson's fight to be told the truth about her cancer even as she was working to expose the hazards of pesticides. Lost Woods also creates a vivid record of Carson's activism. In talks to national groups, she gives astute early criticism of the ties between universities and chemical manufacturers, and skewers her critics with still-timely precision.

Rachel Carson, whose brave and lyrical Silent Spring set in motion the modern environmental movement, was an extremely private public figure. Her friendship with Dorothy Freeman was begun in 1953, when Carson was forty-six, after Freeman wrote to the already-famous author. Their friendship, formed around mutual love of the Maine seashore and on an almost immediate emotional recognition, quickly gained in intensity. The friendship with Freeman became Carson's most important emotional haven and her richest source of creative support during the last twelve years of her life. Always, Rachel is first of all a record of a moving, complex, and sustained friendship between two women. It is the first revealing autobiographical writing we have from Carson. . The letters span the writing of The Edge of the Sea and of Silent Spring. They illuminate the creative turmoil Carson underwent as she wrote, her moments of despair and then of calm assurance that she had done what she imagined doing, and her sense of destiny as a writer. Always, Rachel reveals for the first time the nearly crushing family and physical burdens under which Carson wrote Silent Spring - that she was dying of cancer as she was writing the book that was to change our view and use of environmental toxins.

In this book, the author "affirms her belief that those who live with the mysteries of earth, sea, and sky are never alone or weary of life ... Her narrative and photographsthat accompany it chart the paths which adult and child can take together on this journey of discovery.

Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of the most remarkably successful books ever written about the natural world. Rachel Carson's rare ability to combine scientific insight with moving, poetic prose catapulted her book to first place on The New York Times best-seller list, where it enjoyed wide attention for thirty-one consecutive weeks. It remained on the list for more than a year and a half and ultimately sold well over a million copies, has been translated into 28 languages, inspired an Academy Award-winning documentary, and won both the 1952 National Book Award and the John Burroughs Medal. This classic work remains as fresh today as when it first appeared.^ Carson's writing teems with stunning, memorable images--the newly formed Earth cooling beneath an endlessly overcast sky; the centuries of nonstop rain that created the oceans; giant squids battling sperm whales hundreds of fathoms below the surface; and incredibly powerful tides moving 100 billion tons of water daily in the Bay of Fundy. Quite simply, she captures the mystery and allure of the ocean with a compelling blend of imagination and expertise. Reintroducing a classic work to a whole new generation of readers, this Special Edition features a new chapter written by Jeffrey Levinton, a leading expert in marine ecology, that brings the scientific side of The Sea Around Us completely up to date. Levinton incorporates the most recent thinking on continental drift, coral reefs, the spread of the ocean floor, the deterioration of the oceans, mass extinction of sea life, and many other topics. In addition, acclaimed nature writer Ann Zwinger has contributed a brief foreword.^ Today, with the oceans endangered by the dumping of medical waste and ecological disasters such as the Exxon oil spill in Alaska, this illuminating volume provides a timely reminder of both the fragility and the importance of the ocean and the life that abounds within it. Anyone who loves the sea, or who is concerned about our natural environment, will want to read this classic work.

Rachel Carson--pioneering environmentalist and author of Silent Spring--opens our eyes to the wonders of the natural world in her groundbreaking paean to the sea. 2016 marks the 75th Anniversary of the publication of Under the Sea-Wind. Celebrating the mystery and beauty of birds and sea creatures in their natural habitat, Under the Sea-Wind--Rachel Carson's first book and her personal favorite--is the early masterwork of one of America's greatest nature writers. Evoking the special mystery and beauty of the shore and the open sea--its limitless vistas and twilight depths--Carson's astonishingly intimate, unforgettable portrait captures the delicate negotiations of an ingeniously calibrated ecology.--'Under the Sea-Wind' presents a naturalist's picture of ocean life. This book is her breathtaking canvas of the fierce, competitive struggle for life takes place along the shore, in the open sea, and along the sea bottom. Linda Lear provides a new introduction.

10th grade

Contains: [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]( / Mark Twain -- The sea around us / Rachel L. Carson -- [Alice's adventures in wonderland]( and [Through the looking glass]( / Lewis Carroll -- Prisoner of Zenda / Anthony Hope.

"Library of America launches its Rachel Carson edition with this deluxe illustrated volume presenting one of the landmark books of the twentieth century together with rare letters, speeches, and other writings that reveal the personal courage and passionate commitment of its author..."--Amazon.com