Category: Biology & Life Sciences, Text, Yale University, United States

Rachel Louise Carson, noted biologist and environmentalist who fascinated readers with three books on the wonders of the sea and awakened the American public to the dangers of pesticide misuse with a highly controversial bestseller, was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She was interested in writing at an early age and submitted a number of juvenile stories, poems, and essays to leading youth magazines. Rachel Carson's first book, Under the Sea Wind , attracted little notice on its appearance in 1941. However, her second book on the sea, The Sea Around Us (1951), remained on the best-seller lists for eighty-six weeks, was eventually translated into thirty languages, and received many awards.