Carson, Rachel – The Bell Bookshop

Lost Woods

Emma — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

‘Our origins are of the earth. And so there is in us a deeply seated response to the natural universe, which is part of our humanity.’

Rachel Carson was one of the most important environmental thinkers and writers of the twentieth century. This collection brings together previously unpublished work, essays, field journals, speeches, articles and letters to create a biography of Carson’s thought: a deeply personal picture of her evolution as an environmentalist and activist.

Lost Woods reveals a profound insight into the fragility of the natural world and our impact on it, and the birth of Carson’s lifelong campaign to bring international attention to the monumental challenges facing us. That we are finally becoming aware of the environmental emergency is thanks in no small part to her.

Man’s War Against Nature

Emma — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.

With the precision of a scientist and the simplicity of a fable, Rachel Carson reveals how man-made pesticides have destroyed wildlife, creating a world of polluted streams and silent songbirds.

Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.

The Edge of the Sea

Emma — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In The Edge of the Sea Rachel Carson introduces us to the ‘strange and beautiful place’ where the sea meets the land. She explores a tide pool, an inaccessible cave, and watches a lone crab on the shore at midnight. From these, and other, encounters she offers us not just a scientifically accurate study of the ecology of the seashore, but also a hauntingly beautiful account of the fragile balance of life found at the edge of the sea.

The Edge of the Sea, like all her writing, sounds a prophetic alarm for the damage mankind is doing to the natural world, but also offers us inspiration: here is beauty, here is something worth saving.

The Sea Around Us

Emma — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Sea Around Us is one of the most influential books ever written about the natural world. In it Rachel Carson tells the history of our oceans, combining scientific insight and poetic prose as only she can, to take us from the creation of the oceans, through their role in shaping life on Earth, to what the future holds. It was prophetic at the time it was written, alerting the world to a crisis in the climate, and it speaks to the fragility and centrality of the oceans and the life that abounds within them.

Under the Sea-Wind

Emma — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Under the Sea-Wind marks the beginnings of one of the most significant careers in nature writing. In it Rachel Carson celebrates the mystery and beauty of birds and sea creatures in their natural habitat, conjuring the atmosphere of the shore and the open sea and the delicately balanced, fragile struggle for life along the shoreline.

PMC Silent Spring

Emma — Thu, 27 Jul 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Now recognized as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, Silent Spring exposed the destruction of wildlife through the widespread use of pesticides

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Despite condemnation in the press and heavy-handed attempts by the chemical industry to ban the book, Carson succeeded in creating a new public awareness of the environment which led to changes in government and inspired the ecological movement. It is thanks to this book, and the help of many environmentalists, that harmful pesticides such as DDT were banned from use in the US and countries around the world.

This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Lord Shackleton, a preface by World Wildlife Fund founder Julian Huxley, and an afterword by Carson’s biographer Linda Lear.