Rachel Carson, Science Editor

not generally well known to the lay public. The same gradations of fame appear in the two careers of Rachel Carson, a well-known writer and a relatively unknown but outstanding science editor. Carson, who has been called the mother of the environmental movement, won lasting fame when her 1962 best-seller Silent Spring brought the overuse of pesticides to public attention. Fewer people remember that for many years Carson was a science editor at the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Current Service workers consider Carson their “patron saint ” and “perhaps the finest editor the government service ever had”.1 Carson’s editorial work had a huge impact on the US Fish and Wildlife Service and influenced Carson’s own writing. What were Carson’s thoughts on edit-ing? What did she enjoy most about it? What were her pet peeves? Much of Carson’s editorial work never entered the public light, and little detailed infor-mation about it remains now, 60-some years later. The Service did not keep edited drafts and memos, and most of Carson’s colleagues have died. However, a glimpse of this side of her life remains available through interviews with current Service employees, through biographies of Carson,2,3 and through her editing of her own writing. A Winding Road Carson was born in the small, rural river town of Springdale, Pennsylvania, in 1907. She started writing at an early age and wanted to become a professional writer. But after she entered Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College), a professor introduced Carson to zoology. She was so taken with the subject that she decided to become a scientist. She had switched majors from English to zoology and thought that she would have to give up writing. By 1932, Carson had received a master’s degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University. Her family was poor, and Carson taught biology at the University of Maryland to help cover tuition. She tried to continue at Johns Hopkins for a PhD, but after a year and a half could no longer afford the program. Armed with a mediocre recommendation letter from her research adviser and excellent recommen-dation letters from teaching supervisors, she struggled to find a second part-time job while continuing to teach at the Universit