On a Farther Shore William Souder

This biography celebrates the 50 year anniversary of the publishing of Silent Spring, perhaps the most influential environmental book ever written and the most important. It tells the story of the book, but also the story of her earlier and extremely popular first books on the oceans that dominate the first half and rightly so.  As the story of Rachel, the person, unfolds, it is through her writing that we grasp her mind and values.  The Sea Around Us and the other oceanographic writing connected her to the shore, to scientists, to research papers, and the meticulous sense of detail and accuracy that established her and made the controversy over Silent Spring harder for her attackers.  

She began as a scientist, but it is obvious that writing was her calling, and nature her passion.  Yes the author tells of her one true love and a little (not nearly enough) about her grandson who lived with her, but he also goes away from Rachel for prolonged periods to tell us what is going on in the world that is connected with her writing.  At times the thread and trail gets long enough that you wonder where Rachel will reconnect, but for the most part these sections give us key connections to other people and events that tell of the time and the issue.

The work on Silent Spring began in the 1950's during a time when both DDT, with its array of related pesticides was changing the chemistry of the soil, removing species, and threatening life, and our fascination and experimentation with Nuclear and Hydrogen bombs led us to a place where we had the power to destroy all life - people included.  It created a new mood, and new perspective on the planet and the future and as a variety of "accidents" and "incidents" piled up the people were ready to listen to and react to the warnings in Silent Spring.  All that is, except the chemical companies.  

One confusion that the book emphasizes as we see Rachel Carson maturing and developing her voice in America is the fact that she never said that pesticides should not be used, only that we should have a well defined purpose and a controlled application when it was determined that health issues warranted it.  But that was not good enough for the companies and the studies began to show that we were eating, drinking, and breathing pesticide residues even if the pesticides were not used within hundreds of miles.  It was becoming pervasive.

In 1962, the publication of the book brought recognition to the author as well as attacks that were financed by the chemical industries.  Within the contents I learned that one manufacturer voluntarily stopped producing the pesticides because of the dangers they presented - and this was before the book came out.   

Rachel received these two contrasting sets of responses while fighting cancer, something that she desperately tried to keep private.  He efforts awakened the Kennedy presidency and eventually led to the EPA.  

Part personal, but more concentrated on the books and their contents and impact, this is an excellent environmental history and biographic presentation.