Rachel Carson's Silent Spring alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers
of indiscriminate use of pesticides spurring revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our
air land and water. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Lord
Shackleton a preface by World Wildlife Fund founder Julian Huxley and an afterword by
Carson's biographer Linda Lear. Now recognized as one of the most influential books of the
twentieth century Silent Spring exposed the destruction of wildlife through the widespread use
of pesticides. Despite condemnation in the press and heavy-handed attempts by the chemical
industry to ban the book Rachel Carson succeeded in creating a new public awareness of the
environment which led to changes in government and inspired the ecological movement. It is
thanks to this book and the help of many environmentalists that harmful pesticides such as
DDT were banned from use in the US and countries around the world. Rachel Carson (1907-64)
wanted to be a writer for as long as she could remember. Her first book Under the Sea Wind
appeared in 1941. Silent Spring which alerted the world to the dangers of the misuse of
pesticides was published in 1962. Carson's articles on natural history appeared in the
Atlantic Monthly the New Yorker Reader's Digest and Holiday. An ardent ecologist and
preservationist Carson warned against the dumping of atomic waste at sea and predicted global
warming. If you enjoyed Silent Spring you might like John Christopher's The Death of Grass
also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Carson's books brought ecology into popular
consciousness'Daily Telegraph 'Very few books change the course of history. Those that do
include Silent Spring'Linda Lear author of Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
