Suddenly, at one of the most dramatic moments: Ibid.
One time, as Carson and Dorothy lounged: Dorothy Freeman to Carson, n.d., ca. Christmas 1954, Muskie.
“Darling,” she wrote to Carson: Ibid.
Carson had finally written a letter: Carson to Henry Beston, May 14, 1954, Beinecke.
Beston invited her to come over: Elizabeth Beston to Carson, May 30 and September 25, 1952, Beinecke.
At the end of the season: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, November 8, 1954, Muskie.
And so, as you know: Ibid.
Carson had recently discovered: Ibid., November 27, 1954, Muskie.
They debated over which hotel: Ibid., December 2, 1954, Muskie.
Could they, Carson wondered: Ibid., December 26, 1954, Muskie. There is a frisson in the correspondence both before and after this escape to New York—but no proof that it was an occasion for physical intimacy. Carson and Dorothy spoke about their longing for each other often, but had few occasions to be alone together in this way. So what might be taken more than a half century later for sexual tension may have been only happy anticipation.
Carson and Dorothy spent two nights: Dorothy Freeman to Carson, January 6, 1955, Muskie.
A day later Dorothy again wrote: Ibid., January 7, 1955, Muskie.
“Darling, again let me tell you”: Ibid.
She said they’d had: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, January 6, 1955, Muskie.
Dorothy could cook: Personal communication. This is how Madeleine Freeman remembers it.
what the classicist Allan Bloom called: Bloom, “Commentary” in Plato’s Symposium, p. 55. Bloom first published this essay as “Love and Friendship” in 1993. The inevitable question as to whether Carson and Dorothy had a sexual relationship cannot be answered. But the weight of the circumstantial evidence is that they did not. My own view is that their love was much like that shared between the writers Martin Amis and the late Christopher Hitchens. In an interview, Amis explained that their relationship was like an “unconsummated gay marriage,” in which the bond was not sex but rather in each of them knowing with certainty exactly how the other thought and felt about everything. Martha Freeman, with whom I have discussed this issue at length, would argue for an additional consideration: the ability possessed by women, but not by men, to form deep, loving attachments that involve emotional and physical closeness, but not sex.
A few weeks after: Dorothy Freeman to Carson, January 31, 1955, Muskie.
Oh, darling, live over those days: Ibid.
Darling, I’m sure now: Ibid.
When Carson finished: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, April 12, 1955, Muskie.
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE ENDURING SEA
In the spring of 1951: Carson to T. A. Stephenson, April 5, 1951, Beinecke.
I am at work on a: Ibid.
Ricketts was originally from: Lannoo, Leopold’s Shack and Ricketts’s Lab, pp. 8–13.
he fell under the influence of: Ibid., pp. 22–23.
Ricketts had gotten married: Ibid., pp. 13 and 22.
He opened a biological supply company: Ibid., p. 22–24.
Ricketts operated out of a dilapidated house: Ibid., pp. 59–73.
He believed there was: Ibid., pp. 29–31.
Free in his thoughts: Ibid., pp. 24–31 and 59–73.
He failed to stop: Ibid., pp. 1–2.
They chartered a seventy-six-foot fishing vessel: Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez, p. 8.
We have looked into the tide pools: Ibid., p. 15.
Many years ago: Ricketts and Calvin, Between Pacific Tides, p. 196.
her favorite being St. Simons Island: Carson, field notes, and Carson to Marie Rodell, October 26, 1957, Beinecke.
The tides following the recent: Carson to Dorothy Algire, n.d., Beinecke.
Writing of the sand dollars: Carson, Edge of the Sea, p. 140.
Walking back across the flats: Ibid.
Carson called the edge of the sea: Ibid., p. 1.
In a draft of The Edge of the Sea: Carson, manuscript draft, Beinecke.
Then in my thoughts: Carson, Edge of the Sea, pp. 249–50. This is perhaps the loveliest passage in all of Carson’s work, a reach for deeply felt emotion and cosmic significance that actually catches hold of both.
In May 1955: Carson to Paul Brooks, May 8, 1955, Beinecke.
Just before the Fourth of July: Carson to Sanderson Vanderbilt, July 3, 1955, Beinecke.
The speech she mentioned: Undated newspaper clipping, Beinecke.
Ignoring the fact that: Carson to Henry Laughlin, July 19, 1955, Beinecke. Laughlin was the president of Houghton Mifflin.
Laughlin was out of the country: Lovell Thompson to Carson, July 21, 1955, Beinecke.
A week later he wrote: Ibid., July 29, 1955, Beinecke.
When Henry Laughlin got back: Henry Laughlin to Carson, August 2, 1955, Beinecke.
Charles Poore caught the: New York Times, October 26, 1955.
Apparently Miss Carson: Ibid.
Earl Banner, writing in the: Boston Globe, October 30, 1955.
Freely mixing its: Time, November 7, 1955.
Jacquetta Hawkes said: New Republic, December 23, 1955.
And Farley Mowat wrote: Toronto Telegram, December 3, 1955.
Good writing, Langdon said: Books and Bookmen, February 1956. 217 It is not an accident: Ibid.
Four weeks after: New York Times Sunday Book Review, November 20, 1955.
In mid-December: Ibid., December 11, 1955.
She told Dorothy Freeman: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, October 29, 1955, Muskie.
“I’ll be happy that it is”: Ibid., November 20, 1955, Muskie.
Carson told Dorothy that: Ibid., January 10, 1956, Muskie.
“many flaws”: Ibid., November 27, 1955, Muskie.
Not surprisingly, Dorothy felt: Dorothy Freeman to Carson, November 24, 1955, Muskie.
Carson had recently been approached: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, December 2, 1955, Muskie. Carson confessed that she really ought to watch television once in a while so she would have some idea what such programs were like.
She told Marie Rodell that: Carson to Marie Rodell, November 29, 1955, Beinecke.
But as she got further: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, February 6, 1956, Muskie.
Carson felt herself: Ibid., February 4, 1956, Muskie.
Dorothy, hoping to calm: Ibid., February 9, 1956, Muskie.
Dubious, Carson wrote back: Ibid.
She decided that television people were: Ibid., February 25, 1956, Muskie.
Carson saw the atmosphere: Draft outline of Carson’s script, n.d., Beinecke.
Afterward, one of Carson’s neighbors: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, March 15, 1956, Muskie.
In a letter to one of: Carson to Sally Cist, April 14, 1956, Beinecke.
In August 1955, Rodell discussed: Marie Rodell to J. Robert Moskin, August 29, 1955, Beinecke.
I remember a summer night when: Carson, “Help Your Child to Wonder,” Woman’s Home Companion, July 1956.
When Dorothy read a draft: Dorothy Freeman to Carson, April 11, 1956, Muskie.
That year at Christmas: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, n.d., ca. December 1956, Muskie.
But now Oxford University Press: Ibid., December 8, 1956, Muskie.
Dorothy, who for a long time: Dorothy Freeman to Carson, n.d., ca. Christmas 1956, Muskie.
A month later, after a hospitalization: Carson, Always, Rachel, p. 216.
CHAPTER NINE: EARTH ON FIRE
On the morning of January 22, 1954: Lapp, Voyage of the Lucky Dragon, pp. 1–54. Except as noted in citations to follow, this recounting is based entirely on Ralph E. Lapp’s extraordinary book.
But as early as 1922: Hansen, U.S. Nuclear Weapons, p. 43.
There were uncertainties: Ibid.
During World War II: Ibid., pp. 43–44.
The first explosive hydrogen device: Ibid., pp. 58–60.
As impressive and frightening: Ibid., pp. 60–61.
A yea
r and a half later: Ibid., pp. 61–66.
The firing center for: Ibid. A post-test report said that “everyone and everything in the northern Marshall Islands had become radiologically contaminated.”
On its return to port: Lapp, Voyage of the Lucky Dragon, pp. 55–171.
The New York Times reported that: New York Times, March 17, 1954.
Then, not quite two weeks after: Ibid.
On March 24, 1954: Ibid., March 25, 1954.
One immediate step: Ibid., March 28, 1954.
Then on March 28: Ibid.
Another hydrogen bomb was exploded: Hansen, U.S. Nuclear Weapons, p. 64.
In early April: New York Times, April 1, 1954.
U.S. officials started negotiating: Ibid.
In July 1954, a team of: Ibid., July 5, 1954.
This was the same conclusion: Ibid., September 28, 1947.
Even so, the scientists seven years later: Ibid., July 5, 1954.
Three months later: Ibid., October 14, 1954.
Most were confident: Miller, Under the Cloud, pp. 33–34.
Between 1951 and 1955: “United States Nuclear Tests: July 1945 through September 1992,” U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office.
In his top-secret report: Williams and Cantelon, American Atom, pp. 47–55.
The cloud traveled to a great height: Ibid.
A few months after: Miller, Under the Cloud, pp. 58–59.
The far-reaching effects: Ibid., pp. 84–106.
Dr. Einstein explained: Williams and Cantelon, American Atom, pp. 12–14.
Ethel’s execution was: Philipson, Ethel Rosenberg, pp. 351–352.
President Truman all but shut down: Wayne Blanchard, “American Civil Defense 1945–1984: The Evolution of Programs and Policies,” National Emergency Center, Monograph Series 2. no. 2, 1985.
Just one month after: New York Times, April 1, 1954.
A year later: Ibid., June 10, 1955.
In the early 1950s: “Survival Under Atomic Attack,” Office of Civil Defense, October 1950.
In 1955, the Civil Defense Administration: Garrison, Bracing for Armageddon, p. 60.
In 1958, a high-ranking: New York Times, September 25, 1958.
But the cost of such a system: Blanchard, “American Civil Defense 1945–1984.”
In 1957, President Eisenhower rejected: Garrison, Bracing for Armageddon, pp. 86–87.
By the 1960s, the question: This quote is generally attributed to Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, Pravda, July 20, 1963. Others surely shared the thought.
None of this was lost on: Personal recollection. I will never forget the “flash” drills I performed (they were, after all, play-acting farces) or the fact that when I moved from elementary school to junior high I no longer lived close enough to home to go there in the event of an attack. The idea that I would not be able to find my two younger brothers in the chaos of a school evacuation as the missiles began to rain down was a torment I tried not to think about.
In 1943, a sample of: William B. Deichmann, “The Debate on DDT,” Archives of Toxicology 29, no. 1 (1972), Patuxent.
In 1950, about 12 percent: “DDT Regulatory History: A Brief Survey (to 1975),” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, July 1975.
Domestic DDT use peaked in 1959: Ibid.
These included lindane: Deichmann, “Debate on DDT.”
In 1952: James B. DeWitt, and John L. George, “Pesticide-Wildlife Review,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Circular 84, 1959, Beinecke.
The first tests were inconclusive: Clarence Cottam and Elmer Higgins, “DDT: Its Effect on Fish and Wildlife,” U.S. Department of the Interior Circular 11, 1948, Patuxent.
“As soon as DDT was taken outdoors”: Arnold L. Nelson and Eugene W. Surber, “DDT Investigations by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1946,” U.S. Department of the Interior Special Scientific Report No. 41, Patuxent.
The nature of complications: Joseph P. Linduska, “The Effects of DDT on Wildlife,” Shade Tree 20, no. 12 (December 1947), Patuxent.
Some effects of DDT spraying: Joseph P. Linduska, and Eugene W. Surber, “Effects of DDT and Other Insecticides on Fish and Wildlife: Summary of Investigations During 1947,” U.S. Department of the Interior Circular 15, 1948, Patuxent.
In one orchard: Ibid.
“Although the immediate advantages”: C. H. Hoffman, and Joseph P. Linduska, “Some Considerations of the Biological Effects of DDT,” Scientific Monthly 69, no. 2 (August 1949), Patuxent.
A year later: Joseph P. Linduska, “DDT and the Balance of Nature,” Proceedings and Papers, International Technical Conference on the Protection of Nature, 1950, Patuxent.
Many types of control projects: Ibid.
By 1951, the Patuxent pesticides project: Chandler S. Robbins, et al., “Effects of Five-Year DDT Application on Breeding Bird Population,” Journal of Wildlife Management 15, no. 2 (April 1951), Patuxent.
Meanwhile, an ever-widening: Allen H. Benton, “Effects on Wildlife of DDT Used for Control of Dutch Elm Disease,” Journal of Wildlife Management 15, no. 1 (January 1951), Patuxent.
The 1948 spraying: Ibid.
Only a relative handful: Ibid.
In one test, hatchlings: Robert T. Mitchell et al., “The Effects of DDT upon the Survival and Growth of Nestling Songbirds,” Journal of Wildlife Management, no. 1 (January 1953), Patuxent.
Experiments at Patuxent: James B. DeWitt et al., “DDT vs. Wildlife: Relationships Between Quantities Ingested, Toxic Effects and Tissue Storage,” Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association 44, no. 1 (January 1955), Patuxent.
Another “subtle” effect of DDT: John L. George, “Effects on Fish and Wildlife of Chemical Treatments of Large Areas,” Journal of Forestry 57, no. 4 (April 1959), Patuxent.
By 1956 there were: Paul F. Springer, “DDT: Its Effects on Wildlife,” Passenger Pigeon 19, no. 4 (winter 1957), Patuxent.
its best guess at a “safe” concentration: John L. George, “Effects on Fish and Wildlife of Chemical Treatments of Large Areas,” Journal of Forestry 57, no. 4 (April 1959), Patuxent.
The threat to aquatic species: Ibid.
A campaign to eradicate gypsy moths: Ibid.
Immediate mortality of individuals: Ibid.
In 1950, the American Medical Association’s: “Report of the Council,” Journal of the American Medical Association 142, no. 13 (April 1, 1950).
The committee said that: “Report to the Council,” Journal of the American Medical Association 144, no. 2 (September 9, 1950).
Organophosphate poisoning: Ibid.
The AMA was worried: “Insecticide Storage in Adipose Tissue,” Journal of the American Medical Association 145, no. 10 (March 10, 1951).
the AMA was advising physicians: “Aldrin and Dieldrin Poisoning,” Journal of the American Medical Association 146, no. 4 (May 26, 1951).
In 1952, the Committee on Pesticides: “Report to the Council: Health Hazards of Electric Vaporizing Devices for Insecticides,” Journal of the American Medical Association 149, no. 4 (May 24, 1952).
Although cases of: Ibid.
categorically opposed the use of insecticide vaporizers: “Report to the Council: Abuse of Insecticide Fumigating Devices,” Journal of the American Medical Association 156, no. 6 (October 9, 1954).
Two years earlier the AMA: “Report to the Council: Toxic Effects of Technical Benzene Hexachloride and Its Principal Isomers,” Journal of the American Medical Association. 147, no. 6 (October 6, 1952).
In one case an eighteen-month-old: “Report to the Council: Abuse of Insecticide Fumigating Devices.”
“Insecticidal poisons that”: Ibid.
By the spring of 1957: Thompson Chemicals Corporation press release, May 1, 1957, Beinecke.
In 1954, Dr. Wayland J. Hayes, Jr.: “Present Status of Our Knowledge of DDT Intoxication,” American Journal of Public Health 45, April 1955.
The safety of DDT was also official policy: USDA press release, May 10, 1957, Beinecke.
In
1956, Carson served on: Committee roster, August 23, 1956, Beinecke.
Attentive as always: Carson to Paul Brooks, February 25, 1956, Beinecke.
Polite but understandably defensive: Paul Brooks to Carson, February 29, 1956, Beinecke.
Life magazine invited her: Carson to Marie Rodell, April 14, 1956, Beinecke.
One idea that never went: Marie Rodell to Carson, July 25, 1956, Beinecke.
and confessed to Dorothy Freeman: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, March 27, 1957, Muskie.
“Sometimes I think I can’t go on”: Ibid., May 18, 1957, Muskie.
Carson told Dorothy it had been a year: Ibid., November 5, 1957, Muskie.
Her biggest challenge: Carson to Marie Rodell, October 26, 1957, Beinecke.
The undisturbed shore is: Ibid.
Early in 1956, Carson got into: Carson to Leon Powers, February 15, 1956, Beinecke. Powers was the comptroller of the Musical Masterpiece Society.
In case my name is not: Ibid. The National Institute of Arts and Letters is not to be confused with the more prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters, to which Carson was later elected.
She thought everyone now faced: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, November 7, 1957, Muskie.
Tell us something, they said: Matheson, Incredible Shrinking Man, p. 118.
which she described as: Carson to Dorothy Freeman, December 2, 1957, Muskie.
One time she stumbled upon: Ibid., December 31, 1957–January 1, 1958, Muskie.
The nonnative pest: I. B. Bird, “What Are the Side Effects of the Imported Fire Ant Control Program?” Presented to Second Seminar on Biological Problems in Water Pollution, 1959, Beinecke.
By 1958, reports from the field: Ibid.
A report from the Alabama Division of Game and Fish: Ibid.
banned the use of heptachlor on food crops: FDA press release, October 27, 1959, Beinecke.
Congress had authorized the FDA: Winton B. Rankin, “Control of Pesticides on Food,” Public Health Reports 71, no. 6 (June 1956), Beinecke. The law was known generically as the “Miller Amendment.”
It had been discovered that heptachlor: FDA press release, October 27, 1959, Beinecke.
It is rank folly for the government: New York Times, January 8, 1958.
Later that year, three Harvard biologists: Edward O. Wilson et al. to Ezra Taft Benson, n.d., ca. 1958, Beinecke.
On a Farther Shore Page 48
