This Memorial Day weekend marks the 100th anniversary
of Rachel Carson's birth (May 27, 1907). A marine biologist
and writer, Carson is viewed as a founder of the contemporary
environmental protection movement and largely credited
with drawing attention to the adverse effects of pesticides,
especially the use of DDT, in her book Silent
Spring, a 1963 NBA Nonfiction Finalist.
Carson discussed her career's natural progression
and science as a subject matter in literature during
a 1952
National Book Award acceptance speech for The
Sea Around Us. "The aim of science
is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take
it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or
history or fiction. It seems to me, then, that there
can be no separate literature of science," she
said.
The Sea Around Us won the
1952 Nonfiction National Book Award and sold more
than 200,000 copies in hard cover within one year,
according
to TIME Magazine.
On June 9, 1980 Carson was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian
honor, by then President Jimmy Carter.
The other Nonfiction Finalists in 1952, (the year Carson's
book The Sea Around Us won the award) were:
- Hannah Arendt - The Origins of Totalitarianism
- Marshall Davidson - Life in America
- F.W. DuPee - Henry James
- Waldo Frank - Birth of a World
- Douglas S. Freeman - George Washington
- Erich Fromm - The Forgotten Language
- Oscar Handlin - The Uprooted
- Walker Kazin - A Walker in the City
- Dumas Malone - Jefferson and the Rights of
Man
- C. Wright Mills - White Collar
- Arthur Mizener - The Far Side of Paradise
- Lewis Mumford - Conduct of Life
- Merlo Pusey - Charles Evans Hughes
- Nathan Schachner - Thomas Jefferson
- William Carlos Williams - The Autobiography
of William Carlos Williams
- C. Vann Woodward - Reunion and Reaction
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The banner
to the left, from the Foundation archives, lists
the 1952 Non-fiction judging panel, who honored
Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us with
their award. |
Silent Spring was a 1963 NBA Nonfiction
Finalist. The award went to Henry James, Vol.
II: The Conquest of London, Henry James, Vol. III:
The Middle Years by Leon Edel.
Other 1963 Finalists:
Feature on CBS Sunday Morning;
The Legacy Of Silent Spring:
Despite Industry Backlash, Rachel Carson's Warning
About Chemicals Helped Found The Green Movement
Read a transcript of the report or watch the entire
segment online at
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/22/sunday/main2714532.shtml
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