Books : Rachel Carson - What a Sad Life!!

Wow, that PBS American Experience episode on author-environmentalist Rachel Carson was so sad!! This woman had to drop her dreams of continuing her education to provide for her widowed, older mother, sister, and her sister's kids, had no privacy or time for a personal life, then when her siblings and niece are finally grown, then her sister dies and her niece ends up pregnant and soon after dies, leaving Rachel to raise yet another child while also dealing with a very aged, demanding mother. Then the mother passes at 89 and Rachel is still raising the niece's young son and she before long gets cancer which she battles for a few years before dying at 56. Somehow she manages to research and write perhaps the most important book ever on the potential dangers of pesticides in the midst of this! The woman was a triumph but it was such a shame she had so little personal happiness and pleasure in her years.

More like a silent scream than a silent Spring!

You're my wife now.

Yes, I've got a copy of Silent Spring.

For anyone who's interested in the right-wing attack on science, whether it's research on the effects of smoking or human-induced climate change, I highly recommend the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. Rachel Carson gets a mention in there.