Rachel Carson

When most people hear the word hero they think of Super Man or Bat Man. I don't, I think of people that help others and don't put themselves first. Heroes can be anyone they can be a family member or a celebrity, but no matter who that person is they are your hero because they inspire you.

Rachel Louise Carson, a wonderful writer as you may think of her, but she was much more. She was also a marine zoologist, a biolosist a scientist and even a polition. She as truly devoted to nature and everything that goes along with it. Even through breast cancer she still found time to teach us to love and respect nature.

The day of May 27, 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Carson were blessed with a gift, a baby girl. They named her Rachel Louise Carson. Little did they know that this little infant would soon make it to the encyclopedias! She wa the youngest of three children who lived in a mid size farm house in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She credited her mother for introducing her to the world of nature that became her lifelong passion.She also credited her mother for encouraging her to write hr first book "Battle in the Clouds." It appeared in St. Nicholas magazine when she was in fourth grade.

At Pennsylvania State College for Women she graduated with honors and a major in biology. She was awarded woth a full schlarship enabling her to get into John Hopkins University. There, she acheived a master's degree in marine zoology. "Under the Sea Wind" was her first book published. This book including "The Sea Around Us" expressed her liflelong fascination with the ocean. Her book, "The Sea Around Us" became a bestseller and established her fame as a scientist and a writer. She then joined the US Bureau of Fisheries as a writer of a radio show called "Romance Under the Waters." She left the Fish Bureau to build a cottage on the coast of Maine. There, she began to write "The Edge of the Waters." The Maine enviroment and her friendly neighbors, The Freemans, became sources of joy strength and happiness that sustained her throught the deaths of her beloved nother and darling neice, Marion. Carson decided to adopt Marion's young son Roger.

Her shock and outrage at the impact of pesticides on human health and the enviroment encouraged her to undertake the formidable task of alerting the public. She continued the painstaking research that reulted in the publication of "Silent Spring." In 1960 Rachel Carson learned she had breast cancer. She took radiation treatments for the cancer. But on April 14, 1964 she sadly died in her home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Rachel Louise Carson wad a wonderful women. She accomplished things that nobody has accomplished before. She opened anew door to the world. By aceiving all that she did, she showed us that we sould appreciate what we have before it is gone.