Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.
I first heard of this book when I had to read it for Read It and Eat book club a few years ago. The book we followed ,of the same name, had it as an option for the month of November. We all learned a lot from this book, and although we knew of the laws and the terrible effects of DDT, none of us knew the story behind it. It fascinated all of us and we discussed far more than the discussion questions listed for us to talk about in the book.
Since that time, references to this book have popped up in other books I have read. Especially if the book I am reading takes place in the 1960s or is about strong independent women who made a huge impact. It was just mentioned in my Traveling Book Club book Miss Dreamsville. It affected that story hugely as well. Even though Miss Dreamsville was a fiction story, it mention real books.
So this past week while at a museum, I saw the book under glass in a timeline type exhibit on the 1960s, and its great importance one again acknowledged.
It always makes me a little giddy to see the importance of books acknowledged. I have always believed in the massive essentials of reading. The value of it, the pure educational purpose of taking in the story. Especially when it is historic.
Pick it up at your local library. Read it in snip-its daily. You’ll be amazed at the tenacity and power of one voice. Bringing to us all the lesson that you, one person singularly, really can make a difference.
Book on.
Peace.
