The passions of Rachel Carson

Throughout the rest of their friendship, Freeman would refer to this letter from time to time, calling it the "hyacinth letter." The two women became romantically involved. Their correspondence is recorded in Always, Rachel, edited by Freeman's granddaughter, Martha Freeman. Excerpts are also included in The Love of Friends: An Anthology of Gay and Lesbian Letters to Lovers and Friends, edited by Constance Jones (Simon & Schuster, 1997). However, some aspects of their relationship are understanted in the existing documents. Jones explains: "Given Carson's fame, the women knew their correspondence would be published someday, so they destroyed some of their more intimate epistles—a practice they code-named the Strong Box."

In 1953 Carson also quit her civil service job to write fulltime. She dedicated her next book, Edge of the Sea (1955), to Freeman. On Oct. 2, 1955, Freeman wrote:

What can I say on this day when I am so proud and humble?...Darling, you never had a book dedicated to you (and such a book!) did you? So you can't quite know all that it means to me to see my name on the page of an important piece of writing—to Dorothy—with all that I know it means. Last night I read in The Open Heart what Mr. Weeks had to say about a particular dedication of a book, which made me realize vividly how much meaning is read into a dedication by people like him, who know authors well. And I know you must have been fully conscious of that when you made your decision. That, darling, is why I am so proud and so humble—that you were willing for the whole world to know.

For their era, such a profession of love required unusual courage, but Carson's courage would carry her on yet another difficult path.

Edge of the Sea was another bestseller. Carson liked writing books that popularized nature. But increasingly she felt drawn to a more imporant and controversial message about the widespread and irresponsible use of pesticides.

After the end of World War II, many substances which had been tested on insects for use in chemical warfare were redirected into use against crop and forest pests, and disease vectors such as the mosquito. These were largely untested in the field, and their effects on wildlife and human health were unknown. But the United States Department of Agriculture began marketing DDT and other poisons as a panacea to solve every insect

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