Watching Over Nature: Rachel Carson

Growing up on a small Pennsylvania farm, Rachel Carson developed an early appreciation and love for nature. It was not unusual for Rachel and her mother Maria, to spend their afternoons taking long walks through the nearby meadows and woods, observing everything from the beautiful wildflowers to the new eggs in a birds nest. Sometimes, the two would even sneak out late, when the rest of the household was sleeping to watch the activities of those animals who played and roamed throughout the night. But in the midst of all this natural beauty, Rachel also noticed something more sinister-the growing pollution of the air and water by the nearby factories and mines in Pittsburgh, which threatened to destroy the delicate balance between nature and man.

Besides her love of the outdoors, Rachel also shared with her mother a great love of books and reading. Rachel even thought at one point that she would like to be writer. At the age of ten, she had her first story, "A Battle in the Clouds," about an airplane pilot published in the children's magazine, St. Nicholas.

While a student at the Pennsylvania College for Women, Carson's taking of a required course in biology changed her career plans. After graduating with a degree in zoology, Carson then went to Johns Hopkins for a masters degree in genetics. After completing her degree in 1932, she wrote science articles for newspapers and worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. After her father's death in 1935, Carson went to work at the Bureau of Fisheries, (later the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), to help support her mother, and younger sister and brother.

Her decision to pursue a career in the sciences did not mean that Rachel Carson stopped writing however. In 1941, she published her first book Under the Sea-Wind, which described the wonders of the sea. For many of the book's readers, it was as if Carson had magically transported them underneath the water, allowing them glimpses of the magical sea creatures who inhabited the deep and dark waters of the oceans.

Three years later, Carson published The Sea Around Us which won the National Book Award and established her as a leading author throughout the world. While Carson disliked the publicity and attention the books brought her, she was grateful for their financial success. By the summer of 1952, Carson was able to leave her job with the Fish and Wildlife Service and concentrate solely on writing. One of the first things she did was to build a home for her and her mother near West Southport, Maine.

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