WHO WAS
RACHEL CARSON?

Rachel Carson was a National Book Award-winning author, biologist, and Montgomery County resident who is often regarded as the “Mother of the Modern Environmental Movement.” Through her books and articles in publications such as the Atlantic Monthly, Carson changed the way her readers saw the world.

Her first three books-- Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951), and The Edge of the Sea (1955)-- celebrated the wonders of the natural world, especially the oceans. Her fourth book, Silent Spring, raised concerns about the widespread and indiscriminate use of synthetic pesticides such as DDT and more generally challenged humankind's often shortsighted attempts to control nature. The popularity of Silent Spring and Carson's public defense of the science behind it contributed to the passage of the country’s most fundamental environmental laws and the creation of the EPA.

After courageously completing Silent Spring, Rachel Carson most wanted to turn her attention back to a project that would inspire children and adults to connect deeply with the natural world and cultivate a lifelong sense of wonder. Unfortunately, she died from cancer at age 56, before this dream was made reality. Carson's 1956 article, “Help Your Child to Wonder,” was posthumously published as the book The Sense of Wonder. However, this was not the "Wonder Book" that Carson spoke of, which was intended to be a full-length, expanded version of the original article.