The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson (Part One) 

Bea’s Books

“The island lay in shadows only a little deeper than those that were swiftly stealing across the sound from the east.” 

The opening line of “Under the Sea Wind” underwhelmed me. I wasn’t sure I could make it any further, the next page or so was a jumble of 1940s nature writing I had never previously cared to read. I put it down, staring at the small cover plastered with a giant sticker reading “Interlibrary Loan.” I sat and wondered why I had decided to do this in the first place. The great outdoors was never something that called to me. I like civilization (a lot), but somehow, the seemingly fictional Rachel Carson reeled me in, and I found myself devoted to William Souder’s “On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson.” 

I picked this book up at a Little Free Library, liking the deep green spine and the font on the cover. I knew who Rachel Carson was (sort of) but had never delved deeper into her life or work. Bored one night, I picked it up and instantly fell in love with the ever-curious Carson. The cover boasted a quote from the New York Times Book Review: “Captivating–Souder writes vividly and with great empathy for his subject, and her cause.” As I read on, this became true. Souder’s detailed prose showed a great deal of care for Carson’s story and what she fought for. 

Part one of “On a Farther Shore” is packed with information. Rachel Carson was born in Pennsylvania in 1907. As a young woman, Carson attended Pennsylvania College for Women and, inspired by Mary Scott Skinker, a popular teacher at PCW, began to pursue biology. Carson once said: “I have always wanted to write, but I don’t have much imagination. Biology has given me something to write about.” 

Carson re-applied to Johns Hopkins University and obtained a full scholarship (she had previously been unable to attend due to inability to pay). That same year, she secured a scholarship to study at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole in Massachusetts, which she described as a wonderful place to “biologize.” 

In 1935, Carson began working in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, (later U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) a job that allowed her to write about and explore nature, especially in a series called “Conservation in Action,” which put complicated scientific matters into a simpler and more digestible format. 

Carson’s first book, “Under the Sea Wind: A Naturalist’s Picture of Ocean Life” was published in 1941 and chronicled the sea’s ecological relationships and the seasons of its seemingly eternal life. The book did not sell very well, but Carson continued to pursue the theme. Her next book, “The Sea Around Us,” published ten years later in 1951, was a huge success, winning awards, breaking records and inspiring a documentary film Carson herself held a distaste for. 

I still enjoy civilization very much, but Souder’s biography has allowed me to feel Carson’s adoration of the sea and has given meaning to days I have spent on the beach, watching the tides flood the sand, hearing the silence as they retreat and being noisily interrupted by seagulls edging closer to my lunch. 

Contemplating my difficulty absorbing the opening pages of “Under the Sea Wind,” I quickly came to realize just how little I sit down and truly give all of my focus to something unhurried. “Under the Sea Wind” didn’t bother to be hurried, Carson’s opening line gave room for a careful landscape to form in my head, changing as she named each new detail. And as I thought about this, I began to see the struggle of writing as Carson did, of making science into a storyline that flowed. 

Stay tuned for the next installment of  my review of “On A Farther Shore.” After re-capping the second part of Souder’s biography I will analyze Carson’s second book “The Sea Around Us”, which propelled her and her writing to fame.