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Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962, did more than any other single publication to alert the world to the hazards of environmental poisoning and to inspire a powerful social movement that would alter the course of American history. This definitive, long-overdue biography shows how Carson, already a famous nature writer, became a reluctant reformer. It is a compelling portrait of the determined woman behind the publicly shy but brilliant scientist and writer.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 30, 2011
I.d give it 3.5 stars. Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring and The Sea Around Us, was a brilliant scientist and beautiful writer. This book, while extensively documented, gives more than one needs or wants to know of Rachel's every move. The story could have been told in the half the 500 pages.
September 23, 2018
I recently read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and it left me wanting to know more about the author herself and the impact that her book had. (I did something very similar earlier this year with Nellie Bly; I sought out a biography of her after having read Ten Days in a Mad House.)
This book mostly provided what I was looking for. It did a very good job of relating the inspiration for Silent Spring, the process of researching it and writing it and publishing it, and the aftermath of the book's publication. I wish, however, that the afterword had addressed the influence that Carson's book had over the longer term. The narrative ended shortly after Carson's death, which wasn't very long after Silent Spring was published.
The book started rather slowly. At times I felt I was in danger of getting bogged down in it. I think too many pages were devoted to Rachel Carson's first few decades, before she became a famous author. In those years, her life wasn't that interesting. She went to school. She spent time with her mother. She looked at birds. She looked at crabs. She had a few articles published in magazines. She had a job writing government publications. Sometimes I felt that I was reading about every walk that Rachel took and about every meal that she shared with a friend. I'm beginning to understand why there are so few biographies of people who write pamphlets for the government. This biography would have been better, if less thorough, if about 50 pages were trimmed from the first third of the book. But the book does improve by around the seventh chapter.
I did find it curious that Linda Lear, the author, evaded any discussion of Carson's sexuality. I realize that it's definitely not the most important thing about her, and that the exact nature of Carson's relationship with Dorothy Freeman will likely be forever unknown, but I would have thought that Lear would at least have said something like, "the exact nature of Carson's relationship with Dorothy Freeman will likely be forever unknown." I can tell that Lear at least considered addressing this. The bibliography (and yes, I do read, or at least scan, bibliographies!) lists two books by Lillian Faderman: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America and Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women From the Renaissance to the Present. Whatever understanding Lear gained from those two books does not seem to be reflected in the text.
Rachel Carson is definitely someone to be admired. The litany of medical issues that she endured during her final years, as she was working on Silent Spring is just brutal to read about. She had a strong conviction that she was doing something important (and she was!), and she had the strength and determination to keep going and to keep living until she had completed her task. I'm glad I got to know her, both through the book that she wrote and the book that was written about her.
This book mostly provided what I was looking for. It did a very good job of relating the inspiration for Silent Spring, the process of researching it and writing it and publishing it, and the aftermath of the book's publication. I wish, however, that the afterword had addressed the influence that Carson's book had over the longer term. The narrative ended shortly after Carson's death, which wasn't very long after Silent Spring was published.
The book started rather slowly. At times I felt I was in danger of getting bogged down in it. I think too many pages were devoted to Rachel Carson's first few decades, before she became a famous author. In those years, her life wasn't that interesting. She went to school. She spent time with her mother. She looked at birds. She looked at crabs. She had a few articles published in magazines. She had a job writing government publications. Sometimes I felt that I was reading about every walk that Rachel took and about every meal that she shared with a friend. I'm beginning to understand why there are so few biographies of people who write pamphlets for the government. This biography would have been better, if less thorough, if about 50 pages were trimmed from the first third of the book. But the book does improve by around the seventh chapter.
I did find it curious that Linda Lear, the author, evaded any discussion of Carson's sexuality. I realize that it's definitely not the most important thing about her, and that the exact nature of Carson's relationship with Dorothy Freeman will likely be forever unknown, but I would have thought that Lear would at least have said something like, "the exact nature of Carson's relationship with Dorothy Freeman will likely be forever unknown." I can tell that Lear at least considered addressing this. The bibliography (and yes, I do read, or at least scan, bibliographies!) lists two books by Lillian Faderman: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America and Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women From the Renaissance to the Present. Whatever understanding Lear gained from those two books does not seem to be reflected in the text.
Rachel Carson is definitely someone to be admired. The litany of medical issues that she endured during her final years, as she was working on Silent Spring is just brutal to read about. She had a strong conviction that she was doing something important (and she was!), and she had the strength and determination to keep going and to keep living until she had completed her task. I'm glad I got to know her, both through the book that she wrote and the book that was written about her.
August 19, 2024
This is probably the best biography that can be written of Rachel Carson. Carson was mostly a writer, and she only lived for 56 years, so there is not much surface movement to be narrated. She researched, wrote, rewrote, then published, and was invited to various ceremonies, four times over, and then died prematurely. It is not easy to make such a life thrilling, but as far as this reader is concerned, Lear mostly succeeded, as I do not remember skipping a single paragraph. I did tend to get a bit lost among Carson's numerous friends and collaborators, and I would certainly have preferred an intellectual biography, but that was an engrossing life anyway, and the paragraph which describes Carson's death did manage to make me cry.
Carson was truly an admirable woman, but one disappointment I had with her is that although she crusaded against pesticides in part for ecocentric reasons and because she cared about wildlife for its own sake, although she had deep relationships with several cats whose deaths left her heartbroken, and although she was asked to write the introduction to Ruth Harrison's Animal Machines, one of the earlier denunciations of modern industrial farming, it seems Carson never made the connection with her own lifestyle and never went vegan or even vegetarian. In fact, as she was dying from cancer, she even "decided that she would treat herself to a fur coat", "bought a mink jacket" and "was terribly pleased with it and looked 'like a little girl in a party dress'"(p469, eleven pages before her death.) Lear herself does not even note the cognitive dissonance, and has nothing to say about the forty to sixty minks that had to be killed to make this coat, but merely comments that "its large collar and full back... flattered [Carson's] hair and coloring" (!)
Stylistically speaking, the book is well written, though I did spot about a dozen dangling modifiers and one faulty parallelism (I also think the word "preemptorily" p482 should read "peremptorily".)
Carson was truly an admirable woman, but one disappointment I had with her is that although she crusaded against pesticides in part for ecocentric reasons and because she cared about wildlife for its own sake, although she had deep relationships with several cats whose deaths left her heartbroken, and although she was asked to write the introduction to Ruth Harrison's Animal Machines, one of the earlier denunciations of modern industrial farming, it seems Carson never made the connection with her own lifestyle and never went vegan or even vegetarian. In fact, as she was dying from cancer, she even "decided that she would treat herself to a fur coat", "bought a mink jacket" and "was terribly pleased with it and looked 'like a little girl in a party dress'"(p469, eleven pages before her death.) Lear herself does not even note the cognitive dissonance, and has nothing to say about the forty to sixty minks that had to be killed to make this coat, but merely comments that "its large collar and full back... flattered [Carson's] hair and coloring" (!)
Stylistically speaking, the book is well written, though I did spot about a dozen dangling modifiers and one faulty parallelism (I also think the word "preemptorily" p482 should read "peremptorily".)
October 30, 2023
Carson emerges from this biography as even more remarkable and heroic than I imagined. A lot of detail but a largely compelling account of a remarkable life:
"Addressing the stream of propaganda issuing from pesticide trade groups that hid their affiliations behind research organizations or educational institutions, Carson again urged citizen vigilance. "As you listen to the present controversy about pesticides," Carson told the audience, "I
recommend you ask yourself-Who speaks?-And Why?"35 (p440)
Such sentiment is as true today as it was then, only now it is the vested interests of carbon-based fuel companies we have to confront. Rachel Carson will always inspire me.
"Addressing the stream of propaganda issuing from pesticide trade groups that hid their affiliations behind research organizations or educational institutions, Carson again urged citizen vigilance. "As you listen to the present controversy about pesticides," Carson told the audience, "I
recommend you ask yourself-Who speaks?-And Why?"35 (p440)
Such sentiment is as true today as it was then, only now it is the vested interests of carbon-based fuel companies we have to confront. Rachel Carson will always inspire me.
April 17, 2020
Rachel Carson was an amazing woman who accomplished so much, despite so many personal family , financial and sexist obstacles. She was able to identify and pick the brains of so many experts both inside and outside of government to develop all 3 of her best-selling books. She certainly developed her own path in life. Sadly, she died in 1964. I am sure her path would have continued in unpredictable ways. This is a very thorough and well-researched biography, even to the details of her college roommates. Easy, but long read
August 16, 2017
Every Nature lover should read this book. What a great activist in a time when women scientists were limited in number as well as limited in power. I admire her strength and ambition. And if you haven't read Silent Spring, read it too. Much of what she wrote is still true today.
December 20, 2018
Excellent book on Rachel Carson's life. This book is written in an easy to read manner though there are a lot of names and sometimes the author switches between the first name and the last name which can be confusing.
June 1, 2018
My second bio of Carson and again the letters to Dorthy fill a large parts of the book.
August 5, 2018
A brilliant and astonishing biography of a brilliant and astonishing person.
May 19, 2020
Excellent job of reviewing her life.
January 11, 2024
Great book
September 1, 2024
I’ve accepted that I’ll never be able to fully articulate what Rachel means to me ❤️
April 16, 2019
I still have yet to completely read Silent Spring, but picked this up on a whim at a used book store. It was a beautiful insight into Rachel Carson's life. Some readers have called this accounting too detailed, but I think it felt right- it really showed Carson's path as a scientist, as a caretaker, as an individual- and how her insights through her life coalesced to form her environmental philosophy. I'm glad that Carson was able to receive vindication and relief that her ideals led to lasting change and inspiration for so many people.
I did expect there to be more quotes from Carson's writing- but more reason to eventually get to reading her books.
I did expect there to be more quotes from Carson's writing- but more reason to eventually get to reading her books.
November 26, 2012
This book made me want to read Silent Spring more than before, considering just what it took for Ms. Carson to write it -- a long and grueling bout with the cancer that would eventually kill her. There were times when I was surprised by just how ill she was (various infections and other maladies due to a weakened immune system in addition to the cancer and radiation treatments themselves). Yet so many times she rallied again in order to finish the project and to have a little more time with her great nephew whom she had cared for after his mother succumbed several years before to diabetes complications.
Interestingly enough, I first want to read Carson's The Sea Around Us, a book about the ocean -- a love that I share. This book won every award and accolade short of a Pulitzer and established Carson as a top science writer who could convey nature with scientific accuracy and poetic prose.
The only mild criticism I have of this book is that it seemed to get bogged down in too many details that were a bit redundant. But overall it's a very good and thorough biography of a woman whose quiet determination helped initiate an important understanding of ecology and our place in it.
Interestingly enough, I first want to read Carson's The Sea Around Us, a book about the ocean -- a love that I share. This book won every award and accolade short of a Pulitzer and established Carson as a top science writer who could convey nature with scientific accuracy and poetic prose.
The only mild criticism I have of this book is that it seemed to get bogged down in too many details that were a bit redundant. But overall it's a very good and thorough biography of a woman whose quiet determination helped initiate an important understanding of ecology and our place in it.
March 11, 2011
The Biography i read was from Henry holt and co.New York "The Life of the Author of Silent Spring"
by Linda Lear. isbn 0-8050 3427-7.
A very moving biography of a great woman writer and scientist,whose life of hardship did not prevent
her from saving the ecology from the greed and insensitivity of the established order.
Quote from the book: Albert Schweitzer "Modern man no longer knows how to forestall.He will end up
by destroying the earth from which he and other living creatures draw their food."
by Linda Lear. isbn 0-8050 3427-7.
A very moving biography of a great woman writer and scientist,whose life of hardship did not prevent
her from saving the ecology from the greed and insensitivity of the established order.
Quote from the book: Albert Schweitzer "Modern man no longer knows how to forestall.He will end up
by destroying the earth from which he and other living creatures draw their food."
February 14, 2012
I love the book. It is obvious that Linda Lear took a great deal of effort to undercover little known facts. It was like getting to know Rachel Carson-including her childhood, her tough time at Chatham and her time at Wood Hole. I was thrilled to hear that it was one of her senior managers who said, "This won't do-you need to edit this for Atlantic Monthly" and how Rachel would say that the boss was her first literary agent!!
May 22, 2016
I knew of Rachel Carson before I read this book – rather, I knew that she had written Silent Spring, which I knew was a defining book of the modern ecology movement. But reading Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature introduced me for the first time to Rachel Carson, the woman. And, as always when I am intrigued by a person, I want to read everything by her and about her – hence, the addition of all of Carson’s works to my reading list!
November 20, 2016
Linda Lear writes a sensitive and detailed account of Rachel Carson's personal and professional life.
I recommend this book for anyone interested in our political and environmental history. "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson brought the attention of the general public to the issues of environmental health.
I recommend this book for anyone interested in our political and environmental history. "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson brought the attention of the general public to the issues of environmental health.
September 12, 2011
Just brilliant. Endearing and thorough. Would that this woman were able to stay with us for longer than she did. Compassionate, tough, factual and fiercely loving. A hero. A splendid human being.
October 22, 2012
This wonderful biography was well-researched. After reading it, I immediately purchased Carson's earlier works to read again.
April 11, 2009
One of my favorite books of all time. Changed my life. Rachel Carson was a scientist who struggled for years to get published. Her road to publication is inspiring and heartfelt.
October 5, 2010
Informative, detailed accounting of Carson's life. Even more, Lear took the time to explain the biologist's personal life which was as tragic as it was world-altering.
February 17, 2013
Such an inspiring and depressing tale. Linda Lear tells a great story.
February 2, 2013
The text is quite a slog, but the volume of information is impressive at least, and truly heroic at best. A comprehensive chronicle of the life of one of the 20th century's most influential people.
October 6, 2013
Truly superb. A great and important life rendered in absorbing, carefully researched prose.
July 25, 2014
I thought this book was quite engrossing but the strange typos in the kindle edition were so numerous that it was distracting.
November 23, 2015
Too many irrelevant details, very well researched.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews