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 Several of Carson’s unpublished excerpts first appeared in whole or in part in his splendid literary biography The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work.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.