Rachel Carson was born in Pennsylvania on May 27, 1907. She spent a lot of time outside because her house was surrounded by nature. During that time, in other areas, pollution was starting to spread, and chemicals were being dumped into rivers.
Rachel was very good at writing. She wrote many stories for a magazine called “St. Nicholas for Boys and Girls.” She went to Pennsylvania College for Women, wanting to become a writer. This plan was changed when her science teacher inspired her to switch to Marine Biology.
After graduating college, Rachel Carson spent the summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. Then, she went to Johns Hopkins University for her Master’s Degree in Biology.
Just after she started, though, The Great Depression started, and, during her second year, Rachel had a hard time paying for school. So, she started part-time work researching fruit flies. Even with The Great Depression, Rachel received a Master’s degree in Zoology in 1932.
In 1935, Rachel applied for a position at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. There were no jobs available, but Rachel was able to write a radio script about fish for them. She wrote it so well that the Chief of the Division of Scientific Inquiry hired her to write more scripts, and when a job for a biologist opened up, he hired Rachel.
Then, she started working on her first book, Under the Sea Wind. When it was published, though, World War Two started, and her books received little attention. When she wrote her second book, The Sea Around Us, Under the Sea Wind also received the attention it deserved. Next, Rachel wrote her third book, The Edge of the Sea.
Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT), a pesticide, started to become popular and was used often. DDT was harmful, not only to bugs, but to all kinds of animals. Not many people realized this, but Rachel did. So, she wrote her fourth book, Silent Spring. She received many awards and helped cause the ban on DDT.
