Under the Sea Wind (Nature Classic)

Before there was an Earth Day, before there was a global environmental movement, there was Rachel Carson (1907-64). This Pennsylvania-born zoologist and marine biologist galvanized opinion with her controversial 1962 book Silent Spring, an examination of pesticides that has been credited with the subsequent national ban on DDT. Silent Spring was a bestseller, but Carson's personal favorite among her books was Under the Sea-Wind, her first. Her sentiments didn't derive from the book's initial success: Released just a month before Pearl Harbor, this lyrical study of the shore and the open sea received sterling reviews but sold miserably. This welcome Penguin Classics reprise edition contains a fine introduction by prizewinning Carson biographer Linda Lear.