Rachel Carson: The Library of America Collection

All 4 of the major works by America’s pioneering environmentalist, including Silent Spring and The Sea Around Us, in one deluxe hardcover boxed set

This deluxe Library of America boxed set edition gathers the essential writings of a pioneering American environmentalist. It presents the complete text of the first edition of Silent Spring, featuring Lois and Louis Darling’s original illustrations, in conjunction with a selection of Carson’s other writings on the environment, including fascinating correspondence with ornithologists, medical researchers, ecologists, biochemists, and other experts that shows Silent Spring taking shape piece-by-piece, like a puzzle or detective story. Also here is Carson’s landmark Sea Trilogy, complete with all the original illustrations.

THE RACHEL CARSON COLLECTION includes:

Silent Spring & Other Writings on the Environment (LOA #307)

• Silent Spring
• Other Writings on the Environment

The Sea Trilogy (LOA #352)

• Under the Sea-Wind
• The Sea Around Us
• The Edge of the Sea

Edited by scientist and author Sandra Steingraber (Living Downstream), each volume contains a 16-page illustration insert, restored original line art, a textual essay, a chronology of Carson’s life and career, and detailed notes.

Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was born on a family farm near Springdale, Pennsylvania. She earned a master’s in zoology at Johns Hopkins before taking a job with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. She published Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951, winner of the National Book Award), and The Edge of the Sea (1955). Silent Spring (1962), her exposé of the disastrous ecological effects of pesticide use, was an international bestseller.

A research biologist and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber was inspired to activism by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, becoming one of America’s leading environmental writers and antipollution advocates. Her books include Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment (1997), Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood (2001), and Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis (2011).