Publications by and about Rachel Carson

Below is a list of books written by Rachel Carson as well as books about Rachel Carson and her career. Links to reviews, excerpts, and articles are listed when available.

All of Rachel Carson's books are still in-print. Check the Chatham Library catalog if you are on campus, otherwise, your local library or a bookstore should carry these books.

Books by Rachel Carson

Under the Sea Wind
by Rachel L. Carson
New York, Oxford University Press (1941)

Portrays the special mystery and beauty of the sea in this seamless series of riveting adventures along the Atlantic shore.

The Sea Around Us
by Rachel L. Carson
New York, Oxford University Press (1951)

Winner of the 1952 National Book Award, this book tells the story of the seas; how they were born, how life emerged from them, and the fascinating marine world within them.

"-- And His Wonders in the Deep", Jonathan Norton Leonard, New York Times,
July 1, 1951

The Edge of the Sea
by Rachel L. Carson
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company (1955)

A book about the animals and birds that live beside the sea. Much of the information for the book was gathered from the Maine Coast near Rachel Carson's home.

Between the Mark of High and Low Tide, Jonathan N. Leonard, New York Times,
October 20, 1955

Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company (1962)

Silent Spring provided some of the first public evidence of how pesticides, used without proper control or knowledge, were poisoning our environment.

Al Gore's introduction to the 1994 edition of Silent Spring

"There's Poison Around Us Now", Lorus and Margery Milne, New York Times,
September 23, 1962

The Sense of Wonder
by Rachel Carson, photographs by Charles Pratt
New York, Harper & Row (posthumous, 1965)

A reprint of the essay "Helping your Children to Wonder", first published in Woman's Home Companion magazine, the book urges parents to help and allow children to explore nature.

Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson
by Rachel Carson, edited and introduction by Linda Lear
Boston, Beacon Press (1998)

An anthology of Carson's unpublished writings

Books by other Authors

Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
by Linda J. Lear
Henry Holt & Co. (1997)

Environmental historian Linda Lear's award winning biography of Rachel Carson.

The first chapter of Witness for Nature.

Saving Spring, Robert B. Semple Jr., New York TImes, October 5, 1997

Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964
Edited by Martha Freeman
Boston, Beacon Press (1995)

Contains twelve years of correspondence between Rachel Carson and her friend Dorothy Freeman

And No Birds Sing. Rhetorical Analyses of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
Edited by Craig Waddell
Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press (2000)

A collection of essays examining Silent Spring. Contributors include Linda Lear, Randy Harris, Christine Oravec, and Paul Brooks.

Rachel Carson: The Writer at Work (formerly published as The House of Life, 1972)
by Paul Brooks
Sierra Books (1998)

Biography written by Rachel Carson's editor Paul Brooks.

This project is supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the John W. Cummins Endowment for the Chatham University Archives