Carson became a full time nature writer in the 1950s. Her widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her financial security & recognition as a gifted writer. Her next books- The Edge of the Sea & Under The Sea Wind were also bestsellers. Her sea trilogy explores ocean life, from the shores to the surface to the deep sea.
In the late 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation and the environmental problems caused by synthetic pesticides. In 1962, she wrote Silent Spring, which brought environmental concerns to the American public. Silent Spring was met with enraged denial from chemical companies, but it urged the country into a reversal in national pesticide policy, including a ban on DDT & other pesticides. Carson’s books gave birth to a grassroots environmental movement & inspired the government into creating the EPA.
The current Tea Party wishes to un-do the EPA & because the Tea Baggers love to look backwards to “the good old days of American Values” of non-regulated pesticide use, Carson is not a hero to the far right. Sarah Palin objects to a “Nanny State” that tells the citizens what is good & not good for them. Amazing that Carson’s hard work could still be unraveled.
Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Metal Of Freedom by Jimmy Carter.
In 1953, Carson moved to an island off the coast of Maine, where she became acquainted with Dorothy Freeman. The women started a relationship that would last the rest of Carson's life. Freeman was a summer resident of the island along with her husband. Freeman had written to Carson to welcome her to island life. She had read The Sea Around Us, & was pleased the prominent author would be a neighbor. The pair loved nature & loved each other. They exchanging letters when apart. They continued to share their summer love affair for the remainder of Carson's life. Carson died of a heart attack in 1964.
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