First published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, Silent Spring
alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of
indiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes in
the laws affecting our air, land, and water. "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" (Peter
Matthiessen, for Time's 100 Most Influential People of the Century).
This fortieth anniversary edition celebrates Rachel Carson's
watershed book with a new introduction by the author and activist
Terry Tempest Williams and a new afterword by the acclaimed Rachel
Carson biographer Linda Lear, who tells the story of Carson's
courageous defense of her truths in the face of ruthless assault from
the chemical industry in the year following the publication of Silent
Spring and before her untimely death in 1964.