Under the Sea-wind: A Naturalist's Picture of Ocean Life

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While bottoms near the shore are covered with detritus from the land, the remains of the floating and swimming creatures of the sea prevail in the deep waters of the open ocean. Beneath the tropical seas, in depths of 1000 to 1500 fathoms, calcareous oozes cover nearly a third of the ocean floor; while the colder waters of the temperate and polar regions release to the underlying bottom the silicious remains of diatoms and Radiolaria. In the red clay that carpets the great deeps at 5000 fathoms or more, such delicate skeletons are extremely rare. Among the few organic remains not dissolved before they reach these cold and silent depths are the ear bones of whales and the teeth of sharks. Celebrating the mystery and beauty of birds and sea creatures in their natural habitat, Under the Sea-Wind--Rachel Carson's first book and her personal favorite--is the early masterwork of one of America's greatest nature writers. Evoking the special mystery and beauty of the shore and the open sea--its limitless vistas and twilight depths--Carson's astonishingly intimate, unforgettable portrait captures the delicate negotiations of an ingeniously calibrated ecology. And the eels lay offshore in the March sea, waiting for the time when they should enter the waters of the land, the sea, too, lay restless, awaiting the time when once more it should encroach upon the coastal plain, and creep up the sides of the foothills, and lap at the bases of the mountain ranges. The imagery here forces the reader to imagine the fish and watch the life drain from its vibrant and elegant form. There is sadness and beauty in death, but there is also violence, particularly at the hands of humans: This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.

Celebrating the mystery and beauty of birds and sea creatures in their natural habitat, Under the Sea-Wind —Rachel Carson’s first book and her personal favorite—is the early masterwork of one of America’s greatest nature writers. Evoking the special mystery and beauty of the shore and the open sea—its limitless vistas and twilight depths—Carson’s astonishingly intimate, unforgettable portrait captures the delicate negotiations of an ingeniously calibrated ecology. Rachel Carson writes about the sea, the sand, the birds, fish and the smallest of creatures and organisms in a way that makes us realise how little we observe of what is occurring around us, though we may stand, swim, float or fish in the midst of it. For the sea, its shore and the air above thrum like a thriving city of predator and prey of all sizes and character, constantly fluctuating, its citizens ever alert to when it is prudent to move and when it is necessary to be still. Rachel Carson—pioneering environmentalist and author of Silent Spring —opens our eyes to the wonders of the natural world in her groundbreaking paean to the sea. She wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources and edited scientific articles, but in her free time turned her government research into lyric prose, first as an article "Undersea" (1937, for the Atlantic Monthly), and then in a book, Under the Sea-Wind (1941). In 1952 she published her prize-winning study of the ocean, The Sea Around Us, which was followed by The Edge of the Sea in 1955. These books constituted a biography of the ocean and made Carson famous as a naturalist and science writer for the public. Carson resigned from government service in 1952 to devote herself to her writing. The Edge of the Sea (1955) explores the small creatures that live where ocean meets land: the shorelines and tidepools accessible to any beachcomber. Part handbook, part hymn to ecological complexity, it is a book that conveys the sense of wonder in nature for which Carson is justly celebrated.

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Before David Attenborough and nature television, there was Rachel Carson. What's so phenomenal about this 1941 book was that it was her first, published when she was in her mid-30s. Under the Sea Wind by Rachel Carson was the noted naturalist’s first book, published in 1942. Even in her debut publication, reviewers noted the lyrical quality she applied to scientific prose to make it compelling and readable. Those who dwell … among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Whatever the vexations or concerns of their personal lives, their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. Under the Sea-Wind is structured in three parts, and in each part, we view the sea and sea life from the point of view of one of its inhabitants. Creatively, “Undersea” was unlike anything ever published before — Carson brought a strong literary aesthetic to science, which over the next two decades would establish her as the most celebrated science writer of her time. Conceptually, it accomplished something even Darwin hadn’t — it invited the reader to step beyond our reflexive human hubris and empathically explore this Pale Blue Dot from the vantage point of the innumerable other creatures with which we share it. Decades before philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote his iconic essay “What Is it Like to Be a Bat?” and nearly a century before Sy Montgomery’s beautiful inquiry into the soul of an octopus, Carson considered the experience of other consciousnesses. What the nature writer Henry Beston, one of Carson’s great heroes, brought to the land, she brought first to the sea, then to all of Earth — intensely lyrical prose undergirded by a lively reverence for nature and a sympathetic curiosity about the reality of other living beings.

If you cannot open a .mobi file on your mobile device, please use .epub with an appropriate eReader. a b c d Norwood, Vera L. (1987). "The Nature of Knowing: Rachel Carson and the American Environment". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 12 (4): 740–760. doi: 10.1086/494364. ISSN 0097-9740. S2CID 143507223.In detailing a tern’s relationship to the sea (a type of seabird), Carson indirectly and perfectly characterizes the human-sea relationship: The essay was a narrative account of the countless sea creatures that cohabit in and underwater and introduced her two most enduring and renowned themes: the ecological relationships of ocean life that have been in existence for millenia and the material immortality that embraces even the tiniest organism. It was the essay that spawned a classic in nature literature. a b Arvidson, Adam Regn (26 September 2011). "Nature Writing in America: The Power of Rachel Carson". In the nine years between the publication of The Edge of the Sea and her death from breast cancer, Carson’s reputation grew and changed drastically. The writer known during much of her life for her erudite portraits of nature achieved a level of celebrity and political influence that had seemed unimaginable. Yet it does not detract from the immense accomplishment of Silent Spring to know her also by the passions that defined her life, if not her legacy. Carson’s editor at Houghton Mifflin, Paul Brooks, told Sue Hubbell, who wrote the introduction to The Edge of the Sea’s second edition, that Carson had “talked for years about doing a book that was vast and unfocused, that was about Life Itself.” Brooks wasn’t in favor of the idea, but William Shawn, who brought Carson’s work to The New Yorker, wanted her to write next about the entire “universe.” As a youngster, Carson wanted to be a writer, a poet even. University and a job with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service turned her into a marine biologist with a passion for the sea and an urge to share it. In The Sea Around Us she marries her early ambition with her skills as a researcher and synthesiser. She ranges over the fields of geology, palaeontology, biology and human history, combining the scientist's eye for detail with the poet's feeling for rhythm and clarity of expression. The book's commercial success enabled Carson to leave her job and dedicate her life to independent research and writing. One result of this independence was The Edge of the Sea, the book that completed the Sea trilogy and which moves the beach walker's gaze from the sea before them to the sand and stones beneath their feet. The second outcome was the writing of Silent Spring, Carson's most famous book and one which was instrumental in both the banning of DDT and the crystallisation of 1960s environmentalism. Without The Sea Around Us, Silent Spring might never have been written.