Biography
Rachel Carson was born on May 27th, 1907 in the town of Springdale Pennsylvania. She was a good reader and writer throughout most of her youth, and continued to do well while attending Pennsylvania College for Women beginning in 1925. After graduating from this college in 1929 she went on to Johns Hopkins with a full scholarship. Then in 1932 she graduated from Johns Hopkins, with a master in Zoology.
Carson’s first job was as a radio show writer working for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries where, in 1936, Carson was the first woman to pass the civil service test. This lead to being hired by U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as a junior biologist and stayed there until she became the editor and chief of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Carson started writing books about the world under water in the 1940s. In 1952, after leaving her government position, Carson began to write Silent Spring. This was her most famous book. It was aminly about the harms of the dangerous pesticide called DDT. Her book was published in 1962, and influenced many people including President Kennedy who then began to test for chemicals in the water mentioned by Carson in her book. Carson’s main topics of focus throughout her career were being a Marine Biologist and famous nature writer.
She was a very important woman of change from a political stand point by passing the civil service test and by becoming editor and chief of the publications in her division. She was also an important woman of change from a environmental stand point by causing people to become aware of the issues occurring under water. It was also important that she did so as a woman, many even called her the mother of modern environmental movements. After her many accomplishments Rachel Carson died on April 14, 1964 at age 56, at her home in Sliver Spring, MD never having been married.
