Rarely does a single book alter the course of history, but Rachel Carson's Silent Spring did exactly that.  The outcry that followed its publication in 1962 forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water.  Carson's passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement.  It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.

Rachel Carson, 1907-1964, spent a good deal of her professional life as a marine biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Her first three books---Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, and The Edge of the Sea--established her reputation as a first-rate writer on the natural world.  

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*from the jacket of the 50th anniversary edition