July 31, 1997
Those who know Carson (1907-1964) only as the author of Silent Spring, which raised America's consciousness about the environment and in particular about the negative effects of pesticides, will come away from this comprehensive biography not just with a deeper awareness of what made this woman tick but also with a more thorough understanding of how America's environmental policies evolved. Relying on Carson's extensive letters and on exhaustive interviews with various friends and colleagues, Lear, a research professor of environmental history at George Washington University, traces Carson's life in the most minute detail. We are flies on the wall as Carson, the youngest by far of three children, has her first experiences with nature under the careful tutelage of her mother. We watch as she struggles to overcome gender and social barriers--Carson spent much of her life, until her mid-life literary successes, either poor or the struggling breadwinner for poor relatives--to follow her real passion, writing. We stand by as she finds love and solace later in life in the friendship of a married woman, Dorothy Freeman. It is a story that is at once inspirational and poignant. Carson's was no easy life, but she persevered, driven by a need to write and to illuminate the miraculous natural world to just plain folks. It is impossible to read of her trials and tribulations without being moved. Photos not seen by PW.