Silent Spring.

CARSON, Rachel.

Item Number: 5495

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962.

First edition. Octavo, original green cloth. Signed by Rachel Carson on the half title page. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with some rubbing to the spine. A very nice example.

In the late 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring, which brought environmental concerns to the American public. "Her book is a cry to the reading public to help curb private and public programs which by use of poisons will end by destroying life on earth. ... Miss Carson, with the fervor of an Ezekiel, is trying to save nature and mankind" (The New York Times). Silent Spring "became a runaway bestseller, with international reverberations It is well crafted, fearless and succinct Even if she had not inspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one of the greatest nature writers in American letters" (Mattheissen, Time).