The Sea Around Us

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, 1991 - Nature - 250 pages
Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of the most remarkably successful books ever written about the natural world. Rachel Carson's rare ability to combine scientific insight with moving, poetic prose catapulted her book to first place on The New York Times best-seller list, where it enjoyed wide attention for thirty-one consecutive weeks. It remained on the list for more than a year and a half and ultimately sold well over a million copies, has been translated into 28 languages, inspired an Academy Award-winning documentary, and won both the 1952 National Book Award and the John Burroughs Medal.

This classic work remains as fresh today as when it first appeared. Carson's writing teems with stunning, memorable images--the newly formed Earth cooling beneath an endlessly overcast sky; the centuries of nonstop rain that created the oceans; giant squids battling sperm whales hundreds of fathoms below the surface; and incredibly powerful tides moving 100 billion tons of water daily in the Bay of Fundy. Quite simply, she captures the mystery and allure of the ocean with a compelling blend of imagination and expertise.

Reintroducing a classic work to a whole new generation of readers, this Special Edition features a new chapter written by Jeffrey Levinton, a leading expert in marine ecology, that brings the scientific side of The Sea Around Us completely up to date. Levinton incorporates the most recent thinking on continental drift, coral reefs, the spread of the ocean floor, the deterioration of the oceans, mass extinction of sea life, and many other topics. In addition, acclaimed nature writer Ann Zwinger has contributed a brief foreword.

Today, with the oceans endangered by the dumping of medical waste and ecological disasters such as the Exxon oil spill in Alaska, this illuminating volume provides a timely reminder of both the fragility and the importance of the ocean and the life that abounds within it. Anyone who loves the sea, or who is concerned about our natural environment, will want to read this classic work.
 

Contents

The Gray Beginnings
3
The Pattern of the Surface
17
The Changing Year
29
The Long Snowfall
75
The Birth of an Island
83
The Shape of Ancient Seas
97
THE RESTLESS
109
Wind Sun and the Spinning of the Earth
131
The Moving Tides
149
The Global Thermostat
167
Wealth from the Salt Seas
185
Suggestions for Further Reading
245
Copyright

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About the author (1991)

Rachel Louise Carson was born in 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She received a B.A. from the Pennsylvania College for Women in 1929 and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1932. After undertaking postgraduate work at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, Carson assumed a position as staff biologist at the University of Maryland in 1931. Five years later, she was appointed aquatic biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, which later became the Fish and Wildlife Service, and became editor-in-chief of its publications in 1949. In 1941 Carson published her first book, Under the Sea Wind, for which she received acclaim as an accomplished science writer. Her next book, The Sea Around Us, published in 1951, won the National Book Award. With her increased success as a popular writer, she resigned from her position with the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1952 to devote all her time to writing. In 1956 she published her third book about the ocean, The Edge of the Sea. Soon after, she began work on the book that would become an environmental classic. When Carson became concerned about pesticide pollution and its effects on ecosystems and human health, she spent years reading scientific reports, interviewing scientists, and pulling together thousands of bits of data about the use and impact of pesticides on the soil, in the water, and on plants, animals, and people. In 1962 she published Silent Spring, which immediately caused a stir. The book soared in sales, staying 31 weeks on the bestseller list. In all, Silent Spring sold 500,000 copies in hardcover and millions of copies in paperback. The popularity of her book was in part generated by the outraged response from the chemical industry, which created a substantial debate within scientific, industrial, and governmental circles. The more industry criticized Carson's interpretation of the facts, the more support she seemed to gain from the public, subsequently leading to legislation, such as the ban on the use of DDT in 1972. It would seem that Carson ignited the match that caught the environmental movement on fire. Her impact in the environmental community is significant. Among her many honors are: the John Burroughs Medal from the John Burroughs Memorial Association; the Frances K. Hutchinson Medal of the Garden Clubs of America; the Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Department of Interior; the Audubon Medal of the National Audubon Society; the gold medal of the New York Zoological Society; and the conservationist of the year award from the National Wildlife Federation. She died of cancer in 1964. In 1969 the U.S. Department of the Interior named the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine in her honor. Naturalist, travel writer and artist Ann Zwinger has produced such books as The Nearsighted Naturalist, Women in the Wilderness (co-authored with her daughter, Susan), and Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon (which won the Western States Book Award for Creative Nonfiction).

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