Rachel Carson alerted the world to the dangers of environmental pollutants with works like the ground-breaking Silent Spring.

Biologist and Author 1907-1964

Rachel Louise Carson was born on May 27, 1907, the youngest child of farming and teaching parents in Springdale, Pennsylvania. The 24-hectare (60-acre) homestead was an oasis of orchards, streams, and woods in the grimy Allegheny River Valley, which had been heavily polluted by the coal and steel industries. Carson's parents were a particularly gentle couple who encouraged in their daughter a love of books and nature and a deep belief in sharing Earth with all other living beings. She became a published author for the first time at the age of eleven and later said that the thrill of seeing her story in print and the princely prize of ten dollars set her on her life's course.

Carson received a scholarship to Pennsylvania College for...