Rachel Carson

She adopted the son of her niece named Roger Christie, after the death of Roger’s mother.

This writer suffered from many diseases before she died of a cardiac arrest on 14th April 1964 at her residence in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her body was cremated and a portion of the ashes were buried at the ‘Parklawn Memorial Cemetery’ in Rockville, in the resting place of her mother.

Her research papers and manuscripts have been handed over to the ‘Yale University’ so that the students can benefit from the works.

She was born on 27th May 1907, to Maria Frazier and Robert Warden Carson, in a place near Springdale, Pennsylvania. Her family had a large farm and she used to visit it and dwelled in nature.

She did her schooling from institutions in Pennsylvania before she joined the ‘Pennsylvania College for Women’ (now known as ‘Chatham College’) and completed her graduation in the year 1929.

She worked as a faculty at the ‘University of Maryland’ for a span of five years and at the same time, even pursued her MA in zoology, from ‘Johns Hopkins University’ which she completed in 1932.

She joined the ‘U.S. Bureau of Fisheries’ (now known as ‘Fish and Wildlife Service’) in a temporary post and wrote scripts for radio program ‘Romance Under the Waters’, which helped her to gain some financial stability. She was also hired to write such scripts during the ‘Great Depression’.

In 1936, she was hired by the bureau for a permanent post as an aquatic biologist and she was engaged with the bureau for the next twenty-six years.

In 1937, she wrote an article for the monthly magazine ‘Atlantic’ entitled ‘Undersea’ about marine life.

In 1941, her first book about the marine world ‘Under the Sea-Wind’ was published and the vivid details and scientific information received applause from the readers.

Her last authored book ‘Silent Spring’ is regarded as one of the finest scientific writings concerning the environment. Through this book she tried to focus public’s attention towards the dangers that the environment is subjected to. She warned people against the use of pesticides because they had adverse effects on the environment. This book was faced with much criticism citing the writer as a communist. However, the author did not live long to see how her book generated public consciousness and helped in the ‘Conservation Movement’.