Silent Spring by CARSON, Rachel - 1962

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962. FIRST EDITION. Original green publishers cloth, dust jacket in rough condition with some loss; scattered highlighting and underlining, but otherwise in very good condition. With a small pamphlet by Justice William O. Douglas, reprinted from the Book-of-the-Month Club News, praising Carson's book. First edition, later printing of the author's groundbreaking work on the environmental effects of synthetic pesticides in America. It immediately came under a tremendous amount of fire from the chemical industry, who not only criticized Carson and her findings but also threatened to sue for libel. Nevertheless, this enduring work was a major catalyst in creating laws to stem the use of pesticides, especially DDT, and helped bring environmental concerns to the forefront of American thought and politics from the 1960's on.Carson (1907-1964) was a prominent American biologist who became an early advocate of the environmental movement. Her first book, The Sea Around us, won the National Book Award, and she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.