Amy Ehrlich - Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson

RACHEL
The Story of Rachel Carson

AMY EHRLICH

ILLUSTRATED BY WENDELL MINOR

Harcourt, Inc.
ORLANDO AUSTIN NEW YORK SAN DIEGO LONDON

Text copyright 2003 by Amy Ehrlich
Illustrations copyright 2003 by Wendell Minor

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ehrlich, Amy, 1942
Rachel: the story of Rachel Carson/written by Amy Ehrlich; illustrated by Wendell Minor.
p. cm.
I. Carson, Rachel, 19071964Juvenile literature. 2. BiologistsUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. EnvironmentalistsUnited
StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. [I. Carson, Rachel, 19071964. 2. Biologists. 3. Environmentalists. 4. WomenBiography.]
I. Minor, Wendell, ill. II. Title. QH31.C33E47 2003 570'.92dc21 00-13115
ISBN 978-0-I5-216227-6

G I K L J H F

Printed in Singapore

The illustrations in this book were done in watercolor and gouache on Strathmore 500 Bristol.
The display type was set in Pouty.
The text type was set in Centaur.
Color separations by Bright Arts Ltd., Hong Kong
Printed and bound by Tien Wah Press, Singapore
Production supervision by Sandra Grebenar and Ginger Boyer
Designed by Wendell Minor and Judythe Sieck

For Airie Lindsay. And in memory of Mary Bunting Smith.A. E.
For children of all ages who discover a sense of wonder in nature.W. M.

The Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge comprises more than
five thousand acres along the Maine seashore. The address for more information is:
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, 321 Port Road, Wells, Maine 04090.

The author and the artist gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Rachel Carson Council, Inc.,
in the making of this book. Formed in 1965 to carry on her work, the council responds to questions
from the public on pesticide dangers and publishes scientific information about the environment.

The address for more information is:
Rachel Carson Council, Inc., 8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815,
or e-mail the council at

The author gratefully acknowledges the help of the Rainy Lake Writers and the Oberholtzer Foundation.

Bibliography

Brooks, Paul. The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972.

Carson, Rachel. Under the Sea-Wind: A Naturalist's Picture of Ocean Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1941.

. The Sea Around Us. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951.

. The Edge of the Sea. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1955.

. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962.

. The Sense of Wonder. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.

Freeman, Martha. Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.

Lear, Linda. Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1997.

The Sea Fossil

1912

Rachel's house was far from the ocean, hundreds of miles inland at a bend on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania. There were no seagulls there, no sharks or whales. But one day she found a fossil, a single dark spiral lodged in a rock at her feet. She brought it to show her mother, and they looked it up in a book. The fossil was a sea creature, her mother said. Millions of years ago the ocean had covered their land and left it behind.

Imagine! Beyond the fields and orchards, beyond the woods where she played with her dogs, beyond the Allegheny and the town of Springdale and the city of Pittsburgh, there was a vast ocean even now. At night Rachel lay in bed, her thoughts turning like waves.

A Silver Badge

1918

Rachel's dearest friend was her mother. They walked outdoors each afternoon, naming the insects and birds and plants, and they read books and studied nature together. Rachel was the youngest child in the family, solitary and odd and bright. Her mother let her know that she was different from Robert and Marian. More was expected of her.

Every month Rachel waited for St. Nicholas Magazine to come in the mail. The best part was the stories that children wrote themselves. You could win gold and silver badges if your story was chosen. She decided to send one in. It was called "A Battle in the Clouds," about an air fight in the war.

One month passed, then two, three, four, five. Finally, here came St. Nicholas again, and "A Battle in the Clouds" was printed in it, winner of a silver badge.

Under a Microscope

1927

Rachel was in biology class. Even though she was planning to be a writer, all the students at Pennsylvania College for Women had to take science. The teacher, Miss Skinker, helped her focus her slide. A transparent, elongated paramecium drifted slowly across the microscope's field. To Rachel its shape held the pattern of raindrops sliding down her window, and sandbars in the Allegheny, and clouds in the sky. In that simple one-celled organism she saw the complexity of the universe.

The next time her mother came to visit, Rachel said she was changing her major to biology. She'd always loved nature, but now she'd be able to learn what lay beneath its surface.