Lost Woods (29 page)

Authors: Rachel Carson

BOOK: Lost Woods

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In the course of writing Rachel Carson’s life I discovered the varied tapestry of her formal and informal writing that for one reason or another was lost to the archives or which had once been published but was now long forgotten and out of print. From the freshness of her early nature writing to the richness of her speeches as a mature literary figure, the body of this writing impressed me and made me think that others might find in these, as in her other published writing, much to treasure.

Happily Deanne Urmy, Executive Editor of Beacon Press, shared my enthusiasm for this unknown collection and lent her own deep interest in the subject so that this anthology could become reality. She has enriched the always difficult process of selection by her perceptive editorial eye and her literary discernment for which I am deeply grateful. Working with her has been a gift.

My literary agent and the trustee of Carson’s literary estate, Frances Collin responded to this project with appreciation and insight, and willingly lent her invaluable archives. To Marsha S. Kear, administrative assistant to Collin, I owe a debt of several years’ standing for finding obscure letters and accurate data whenever I came up empty handed.

Shirley A. Briggs always deepens my understanding of Rachel Carson’s life and literary process by document, memory, and opinion. She graciously and enthusiastically responded to my desire to republish Howard Frech’s wonderful charcoal and pencil drawings that originally graced the pages of Carson’s first book,
Under the Sea-Wind.
Frech was a colleague of Carson’s at the Baltimore
Sun
and a splendid artist whose work was widely appreciated in Baltimore art circles. Carson commissioned Frech to draw specific marine life and paid him out of her own pocket for approximately nine drawings, several of which are used here for the first time.

As in my earlier work on Carson, Paul Brooks has once again graciously and with unfailing literary taste led the way. Several of Carson’s unpublished excerpts first appeared in whole or in part in his splendid literary biography
The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work.
I have chosen to republish them here because of the quality of Carson’s writing they exhibit, and the insight they give on her development as a natural scientist.

Almost all of the writing I have selected first came to my notice during the years I spent working on the Papers of Rachel Carson at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. I continue to owe the curators and archivists there a debt of gratitude for their knowledgeable assistance.

Several selections required scientific annotation in order to bring currency to Carson’s original research. I am indebted to the following scientists who helped me verify material and introduced me to the latest thinking on scientific issues that remain controversial: David G. Smith, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, and Christopher Milensky, Division of Birds, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution; Richard H. Backus and William Watkins, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and especially George M. Woodwell, Woods Hole Research Center, who patiently responded to my inquiries and always knew where to send me; Tom Cochran, National Resources Defense Council; Cliff Curtis, World Wildlife Federation; and Matthew Perry, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, who continually expands my understanding of wildlife management.

I was able to work on this project with the assistance and collegiality of Pamela Henson, Office of Smithsonian Institution Archives, and in the good company of the staff of the Joseph Henry Papers, Office of Smithsonian Institution Archives, to whom I continue to owe many happy debts.

My two Ruths, Ruth Brinkmann Jerome and Ruth Jury Scott, have graced my life in different ways but with infinite richness. Ruth Scott was one of Carson’s compatriots but she is also a mentor and guide without whose support my world and Rachel Carson’s would never have coincided so seamlessly or so happily. Ruth Brinkmann Jerome, my dear friend of forty years, began nurturing me as a young undergraduate. She remains my guide to how to live one’s life with grace, humor, courage, and faithfulness.

My husband, John W. Nickum, Jr., to whom this book is dedicated, knows the richness of the support he has given to me day by day and year by year so that I could have the freedom to create and the discipline to persevere. I hope he knows some measure of my love and gratitude as well.

Index

Please note that page numbers are not accurate for the e-book edition.

Abyss, abyssal plains, 104–5

Acadia National Park, 115

Agricultural agencies, authoritarian control of, 217

Agriculture, U.S. Department of, 205, 213

Air Pollution Conference, 232

Alaska, 67

Albatrosses, 68–69, 72

Albatross III
(research vessel), 151–54

Albemarle Sound, 42

Aldrin, 204

Alewife, 16

Algæ, 10, 144, 145

Algonquin tribes, 42

Allee, W.C., 144

Alligators, 157, 158, 159

Amazon River, 66

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 64; Symposium, “The Sea Frontier,” 133

American Medical Association (AMA), 208, 221

American Museum of Natural History, 64

Anchovy, 7

Anemone Cave, 115

Angler fish, 154

Animal(s): experimentation, opposition to, 192; inhumane treatment of, 192, 193; livestock, inhumane methods of raising, 192, 194–96

Animal Machines
(Harrison), Carson’s preface to, 192, 194–96

Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), 189, 192–93

Antelope, 16; pronghorn, 17

Ants, fire, 159, 205

Archeozoic Era, 84

Arctic Ocean, 103

Aristotle, 20

Ascophyllum
, 145

Associated Press, 98, 205

Asters, wild, 122

Atlantic Monthly
, the, 1, 3, 54–55, 150

Atlantic Naturalist, The
, 209–10

Atlantic Ridge, 106

“Atlantic water,” flooding of south coast of England with, 143

Atomic Age, 102, 107, 228, 242; Carson’s references to anxieties of living in, 83, 89

Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 107, 240

Atomic waste: dumping of, at sea, 101, 106–9, 228, 232, 235–37; tragic consequences of dumping of, 237–43

Audubon, John James, 16

Audubon Societies, state, 95, 220–21

Audubon Society of the District of Columbia, 30, 63

Audubon Society Screen Tour, 96

Avocet, 47

Baltimore Sun, 1, 14, 15, 24

Banding, of chimney swifts, 28–29

Barnacles, 6, 120, 174

Bayberry, 40

Bear, grizzly, 17 and 17n

Bear River Refuge (U.S. National Wildlife Refuge), 41

Beauty, natural, 160, 163, 173; destruction of, 161–62; enjoyment of, 165

Beechnuts, 16

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, 118

Beetle: Japanese, 216; white fringed, 216

Bennington Banner
, 202

Berrill, John [N.J.], 137, 138

Big Bear Lake, 235

Bigelow, Henry Bryant, 133, 137–38

Bikini bomb test, 109

Biological Station at St. Andrews, 137

Biological Survey, 99

Biology: instruction, need for reform of, 192; understanding, 193–94

Bird clubs, 46

Bird’s nest soup, 26

Bison, 16

Bittern, 121; American, 47; least, 47

Bluefish, 7

Bobwhite, 13

Bok, Curtis, 172; Carson’s letter to, 173

Bok, Nellie Lee, Carson’s letter to, 173

Boothbay Regional Land Trust, 173

Brant, 15–16

Brazilwood, 70

Briggs, Shirley, 30, 33, 64, 155–56

Brown, John Mason, 90

Bugula
, 120

Bureau of Fisheries, U.S., 3, 14, 33, 149

Bureau of Land Management, 99

Burroughs, John, 94.
See also
John Burroughs Memorial Association, John Burroughs Memorial Medal

Buzzards Bay, 54, 120

Calanus
, 145

Calcium, 10

California, University of, Citrus Experimental Station of, 208

Callianassa
, 127–28

Cancer, 226; breast, 187, 223–24; liver, 219

Canvasbacks, 16, 17 and 17n

Cape Cod, 118–20, 138, 148

Cardinals, 71

Caribou, 237, 238

Carson, Rachel, works of
The Edge of the Sea
, 111, 125, 147

“Help Your Child to Wonder,” 246

“Our Ever-Changing Shore,” 113–24

The Sea Around Us
, 33, 34, 53, 63, 83, 151, 163; dedication of, to Henry Bryant Bigelow, 133; John Burroughs Medal for, 93; money from, 173; National Book Award for, 90; preface to second edition of, 101–9; success of, 34, 51, 76

Silent Spring
, 101, 187, 189, 212, 216, 227; fable opening, 197–200; inaccurate statements in reviews of, 206, 207, 215; insect control set forth in, 214; reactions to, 201, 202, 203; serializing of, in the
New Yorker
, 201, 202

“Undersea,” 1, 3–11, 150

Under the Sea-Wind
, 3, 15, 33, 51, 150–51; background of, 54–55; Book I (
Edge of the Sea
), 56–58; Book II (
The Gull’s Way
), 58–60; Book III (
River and Sea
), 60–62; general plan and viewpoint of, 55–56; memo to Mrs. Eales on, 53–62

Cats, 69

Cattle, 69, 71, 74, 205–6

Caulk, Ralph, 223n, 225–26

Caves, in sea cliffs, 115

CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), 71

Cesium
¹³⁷, 237, 238

Chace, Fenner, 137

Chemagro Corporation, 208

Chemical industry, funding of research universities by, 201, 207–8, 221–22

Chesapeake Bay, 19, 20, 22, 23

Chickadees, 47

Chincoteague Refuge (U.S. National Wildlife Refuge), 41

Clams, 5, 6, 59, 137

Clark University, 27

Clava
, 138

Clawson, Marion, 99

Clear Lake, 235

Cleveland Clinic, The, 223 and 223n

Clouds: Carson’s TV script on, 175–85; cirrus, 184–85; cumulus, 182–84; lenticular, 178–79; stratus, 181–82

Coastline: Carson’s observations and description of, 113–23; Carson’s plea for preservation of, 123–24

Cods, 8, 59, 154

Comb jellies, 7, 121

Committee for Nuclear Information, 240

Committee on Atomic Energy, 239

Commoner, Barry, 232

Composite family, 67

Congo River, 66

Conservation in Action
booklets, 1, 41, 42

Continental shelf, 4, 8, 60

Cook, Captain James, 71

Copepod, 145

Coral reefs, 10, 134

Coral rock, 156

Corals, 10, 80

Cormorants, 34–35, 38; flightless, 68

Coronet
magazine, 25

Council on Environmental Quality, U.S., 109n

Court of Appeals, U.S., 217

Cows, 216, 233, 239, 240

Crabs, 5, 9, 56, 59, 153; blue, 136; fiddler, 57; ghost, 6, 57, 126; green, 136–37; hard, 23; horseshoe, 116–17

Crayfish, 20

Crepidula
, 145

Crile, George “Barney,” Jr., 223n; Carson’s letter to, 223–26; More Than Booty (with J. Crile), 224

Crile, Jane, 223, 224, 226;
More Than Booty
(with G. Crile), 224

Cuckoo, 13

cummings, e. e., 12

Cunners, 7

Cuttlefish, 9

Cypress(es), 42–43, 157; Monterey, 116

Cystoidean
tube, 128

Daisy
(brig), 68

Darwin, Charles, 67–68, 69, 244–45;
The Origin of Species
, 245

Day, Albert M., dismissal of, from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 98–100

DDD, 235

DDT, 204, 205, 213–14, 217, 233–34

Debussy, Claude, 84;
La Mer
, 83, 84–88

Deer, 74, 121

Development: private or commercial, 124; sordid transformation of, 123

Diamond Black-Leaf Co., 208

Diapatra
tubes, 128

Diatoms, 6, 10, 130, 139, 144, 145

Dickinson, Emily, 148

Dieldrin, 204, 216

Dinoflagellates, 121, 139, 143

Dodo, 68

Dogfish, 7

Dogs, 69

Drainage operations, 18

Drift, 234

Driftwood, 174

Duck(s), 18, 171; black, 45; marsh or dabbling, 45; at Mattamuskeet Refuge, 45–47, 48; pintail, 45; redhead, 17 and 17n

Dumping, 109n.
See also
Atomic waste

Dunes, 115, 118–20, 121, 122, 130–32

Dust bowl, 19

Eagle(s), 183; bald, 204

Earth: exploring interior of, 104; temperature of, 135

Earthworms, 190–91

Ebony, 70

Echo sounding instruments, 81

Ecology, 135, 231; and conservation, 167; defined, 166

Ecosystem, 231, 244

Ectocrines, 142, 143, 144, 145

Eels, 7, 56; American, 22, 61; effect of sea water on behavior of, 15; European, 22–23, 61; seeking Sargasso Sea, 19–23, 60–62

Egret: American, 47; snowy, 127

Elk, 16, 17; pronghorn, I7n

Elvers, 23.
See also
Eels

English Channel, 139

Enteromorpha
, 145

Equator, 180

Eskimos, Alaskan, levels of radioactivity in, 237, 238

Everett, Constance, 29

Everett, E. A., 29

Everglades, 154–59

Everglades National Park, 155

Evolution, theories of, 244–45

Fable, opening
Silent Spring
, 197–200

Faulkner, William, 12

Fawns, 121

Federal Aviation Agency, Civil Aero-medical Unit of, 206

FIFRA, 205

Finneran, Fred, 158–59

Fir, 174

Fireflies, 169–70

Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), U.S., 136, 137, 147, 151, 155, 158; and banded chimney swifts, 29; Carson’s employment with, 24, 30; Carson’s resignation from, 51, 111; and
Conservation in Action
, 1, 41; Albert Day’s dismissal from, 98–100; on decline of bald eagle, 204; and Mattamuskeet Refuge, 49

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 12

Flounders, 8

Fly, screwworm, 213

Flycatchers, 69

Fog, 181–82

Food and Drug Administration, U.S., 204, 219–20, 234

Foraminifera, 10

Ford Foundation, TV Radio Workshop of, 175

Fosberg, F. Raymond, 63, 74

Fowl, 21

Foxes, 58, 126

Framingham Reservoir, 205