Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring was first published on this date in 1962. Carson worked at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and eventually became concerned about the effects of insecticides on wildlife. Her book, based on years of rigorous research, covered the effects of the wanton use of DDT and other pesticides on the environment.
Silent Spring was the first book to bring concerns around the chemicals into public view (the risks were well-known in the scientific community) and was consumed voraciously by the public, selling over a million copies within two years of its release. Even more impressive is that Carson accomplished the feat all while battling breast cancer.
President John F. Kennedy ended up backing the ideas in Carson’s book, directing an executive committee to issue a report on pesticides that validated her findings in May 1963. Despite her lasting impact, less than a year after that report was filed Carson succumbed to the cancer she’d pushed through for so many years.
For more on the seminal book’s release, read these stories from History.com and the American Chemical Society. And if you’re in the D.C. area, you can swing by her old home, now a landmark, in Silver Spring, Md. The town is also home to a cute little park dedicated to the book.
