• The Rachel Carson Letters and the Making of Silent Spring

    Author(s):
    John Paull (see profile)
    Date:
    2013
    Subject(s):
    Environmental conditions, Books, History, Sustainability, Women, Women's studies
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Spock, Biodynamics, Rudolf Steiner, EPA, DDT, Environmental history, Book history, Women's history
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/gtyr-mp31
    Abstract:
    Environment, conservation, green, and kindred movements look back to Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring as a milestone. The impact of the book, including on government, industry, and civil society, was immediate and substantial, and has been extensively described; however, the provenance of the book has been less thoroughly examined. Using Carson’s personal correspondence, this paper reveals that the primary source for Carson’s book was the extensive evidence and contacts compiled by two biodynamic farmers, Marjorie Spock and Mary T. Richards, of Long Island, New York. Their evidence was compiled for a suite of legal actions (1957-1960) against the U.S. Government and that contested the aerial spraying of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). During Rudolf Steiner’s lifetime, Spock and Richards both studied at Steiner’s Goetheanum, the headquarters of Anthroposophy, located in Dornach, Switzerland. Spock and Richards were prominent U.S. anthroposophists, and established a biodynamic farm under the tutelage of the leading biodynamics exponent of the time, Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. When their property was under threat from a government program of DDT spraying, they brought their case, eventually lost it, in the process spent US$100,000, and compiled the evidence that they then shared with Carson, who used it, and their extensive contacts and the trial transcripts, as the primary input for Silent Spring. Carson attributed to Spock, Richards, and Pfeiffer, no credit whatsoever in her book. As a consequence, the organics movement has not received the recognition, that is its due, as the primary impulse for Silent Spring, and it is, itself, unaware of this provenance.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1177/2158244013494861
    Publisher:
    SAGE Publications
    Pub. Date:
    2013-7-3
    Journal:
    SAGE Open
    Volume:
    3
    Issue:
    3
    Page Range:
    1 - 12
    ISSN:
    2158-2440,2158-2440
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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