Editing Rachel Carson (section)

====Research and writing====
[[File:Rachel Carson House MD1.jpg|thumb|right|Carson's house in Colesville, Maryland, where she wrote ''Silent Spring'']]
Starting in the mid-1940s, Carson had become concerned about the use of synthetic pesticides, many of which had been developed through the [[military funding of science]] since [[World War II]]. However, the [[Federal government of the United States|United States federal government]]'s 1957 gypsy moth, now called [[spongy moth]], eradication program prompted Carson to devote her research and her next book to pesticides and environmental poisons. The gypsy moth program involved aerial spraying of DDT and other pesticides mixed with [[fuel oil]], including the spraying of private land. Landowners on [[Long Island]] filed a lawsuit to have the spraying stopped, and many in affected regions followed the case closely.<ref name=CarsonPaull /> Though the suit was lost, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] granted petitioners the right to gain injunctions against potential environmental damage in the future; this laid the basis for later successful environmental actions.<ref name=CarsonPaull /><ref>{{cite journal|last=Fay|first=S.|title=Marjorie Spock |journal=The Ellsworth American |date=January 30, 2008 |page=7}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Greene|first1=Jennifer|title=Obituary for Marjorie Spock|journal=Newsletter of the Portland Branch of Anthroposophical Society in Portland, Oregon|date=February 2008|volume=4|issue=2|page=7|url=http://www.portlandanthroposophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/February2008PortlandBranchNewsletter.pdf|access-date=August 29, 2015|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150829182612/http://www.portlandanthroposophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/February2008PortlandBranchNewsletter.pdf|archive-date=August 29, 2015}}</ref>

The [[Audubon Naturalist Society]] also actively opposed such spraying programs and recruited Carson to help make public the government's exact spraying practices and the related research.<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=312–317}}</ref> Carson began the four-year project of what would become ''Silent Spring'' by gathering examples of environmental damage attributed to DDT. She also attempted to enlist others to join the cause, such as essayist [[E. B. White]] and several journalists and scientists. By 1958, Carson had arranged a book deal, with plans to co-write with ''[[Newsweek]]'' science journalist Edwin Diamond. However, when ''The New Yorker'' commissioned a long and well-paid article on the topic from Carson, she began considering writing more than simply the introduction and conclusion as planned; soon, it was a solo project. (Diamond would later write one of the harshest critiques of ''Silent Spring'').<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=317–327}}</ref>

As her research progressed, Carson found a sizable community of scientists who were documenting the physiological and environmental effects of pesticides.<ref name=CarsonPaull /> She also took advantage of her connections with many government scientists, who supplied her with confidential information. From reading the scientific literature and interviewing scientists, Carson found two scientific camps when it came to pesticides: those who dismissed the possible danger of pesticide spraying barring conclusive proof, and those who were open to the possibility of harm and willing to consider alternative methods such as [[biological pest control]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=327–336}}</ref>

She also found significant support and extensive evidence from a group of [[biodynamic agriculture]] organic market gardeners, their adviser, [[Ehrenfried Pfeiffer|Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer]], other contacts, and their suite of legal actions (1957–1960) against the U.S. Government. According to recent research by Paull (2013), this may have been the primary and (for strategic reasons) uncredited source for Carson's book. [[Marjorie Spock]] and Mary T. Richards of Long Island, New York, contested the aerial spraying of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). They compiled their evidence and shared it with Carson, who used it, their extensive contacts, and the trial transcripts as a primary input for ''Silent Spring''. Carson wrote of the content as "a gold mine of information" and says, "I feel guilty about the mass of your material I have here"<ref>Carson, R. (1958 c.). MS typewritten letter: Dear Miss Spock; August 12, 1958. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.</ref> and makes multiple references to Pfeiffer and his correspondence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Paull |first=John |date=2013 |title=The Rachel Carson Letters and the Making of Silent Spring |journal=SAGE Open |language=en |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=215824401349486 |doi=10.1177/2158244013494861 |s2cid=145185549 |issn=2158-2440|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>Carson, R. (1958f). MS typewritten letter: Dear Mrs. Spock; March 26, 1958 (1 p.). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.</ref>

By 1959, the USDA's [[Agricultural Research Service]] responded to the criticism by Carson and others with a public service film, ''Fire Ant on Trial''; Carson characterized it as "flagrant [[propaganda]]" that ignored the dangers that spraying pesticides (especially [[dieldrin]] and [[heptachlor]]) posed to humans and wildlife. That spring, Carson wrote a letter, published in ''[[The Washington Post]]'', that attributed the recent decline in bird populations—in her words, the "silencing of birds"—to pesticide overuse.<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=342–346}}</ref> That was also the year of the "Great Cranberry Scandal": the 1957, 1958, and 1959 crops of U.S. [[cranberry|cranberries]] were found to contain high levels of the herbicide [[3-Amino-1,2,4-triazole|aminotriazole]] (which caused cancer in laboratory rats), and the sale of all cranberry products was halted. Carson attended the subsequent FDA hearings on revising pesticide regulations; she came away discouraged by the aggressive tactics of the chemical industry representatives, which included expert testimony that was firmly contradicted by the bulk of the scientific literature she had been studying. She also wondered about the possible "financial inducements behind certain pesticide programs."<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=358–361}}</ref>

Research at the [[United States National Library of Medicine|Library of Medicine]] of the [[National Institutes of Health]] brought Carson into contact with medical researchers investigating the gamut of cancer-causing chemicals. Of particular significance was the work of [[National Cancer Institute]] researcher and environmental cancer section founding director [[Wilhelm Hueper]], who classified many pesticides as [[carcinogen]]s. Carson and her research assistant Jeanne Davis, with the help of NIH librarian Dorothy Algire, found evidence to support the pesticide-cancer connection; to Carson, the evidence for the toxicity of a wide array of synthetic pesticides was clear-cut, though such conclusions were very controversial beyond the small community of scientists studying pesticide [[carcinogenesis]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=355–358}}</ref>

By 1960, Carson had more than enough research material, and the writing was progressing rapidly. In addition to the thorough literature search, she had investigated hundreds of individual incidents of pesticide exposure and the human sickness and ecological damage that resulted. However, in January, a duodenal ulcer followed by several infections kept her bedridden for weeks, greatly delaying the completion of ''Silent Spring''. As she was nearing full recovery in March (just as she was completing drafts of the two cancer chapters of her book), she discovered cysts in her left breast, one of which necessitated a [[mastectomy]]. Though her doctor described the procedure as precautionary and recommended no further treatment, by December, Carson discovered that the tumor was [[malignant]] and the cancer had [[metastasized]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=360–368}}</ref> Her research was also delayed by revision work for a new edition of ''The Sea Around Us'' and by a collaborative photo essay with [[Erich Hartmann (photographer)|Erich Hartmann]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=372–373}}. The photo essay, ''The Sea'', was published in ''Johns Hopkins Magazine'', May/June 1961; Carson provided the captions for Hartmann's photographs.</ref> Most of the research and writing was done by the fall of 1960, except for the discussion of recent research on [[biological pest control]]s and investigations of a handful of new pesticides. However, further health troubles slowed the final revisions in 1961 and early 1962.<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=376–377}}</ref> While writing the book, Carson chose to hide her illness so that the pesticide companies could not use it against her (she worried that if the companies knew, they would use it as ammunition to make her book look untrustworthy and biased).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Koehn |first1=Nancy |title=Forged in crisis : the power of courageous leadership in turbulent times |date=October 3, 2017 |isbn=9781501174445 |page=416 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |edition=First Scribner hardcoverition}}</ref>

Finding a title for the book proved difficult; "Silent Spring" was initially suggested as a title for the chapter on birds. By August 1961, Carson finally agreed to the suggestion of her literary agent Marie Rodell: ''Silent Spring'' would be a metaphorical title for the entire book, suggesting a bleak future for the whole natural world, rather than a single chapter title about the literal absence of birdsong.<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=375, 377–378, 386–387, 389}}</ref> With Carson's approval, editor [[Paul Brooks (author)|Paul Brooks]] at Houghton Mifflin arranged for illustrations by Louis and Lois Darling, who also designed the cover. The final writing was the first chapter, ''A Fable for Tomorrow'', which Carson intended as a gentle introduction to what might otherwise be a forbiddingly serious topic. By mid-1962, Brooks and Carson had essentially finished the editing and were laying the groundwork for promoting the book by sending the manuscript out to select individuals for final suggestions.<ref>{{harvnb|Lear|1997|pp=390–397}}</ref>