On a Farther Shore (65 page)

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.

Broadcast application of insecticides
:
Ibid.

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1957
: New York Times
, December 3, 1957.

just days after Carson had heard from
:
Marjorie Spock to Carson, February 5, 1958, Beinecke.

Spock had been contacted by
:
Ibid.

She told White about the lawsuit
:
Carson to E. B. White, February 3, 1958, Beinecke.

White wrote back at once
:
E. B. White to Carson, February 7, 1958, Beinecke.

She wrote to Paul Brooks
:
Carson to Paul Brooks, February 21, 1958, Beinecke.

“lively as seventeen crickets”
:
Carson to Dorothy Freeman, January 24, 1957, Muskie.

When Dorothy had offered to have Roger
:
Ibid., March 23, 1957, Muskie.

But I have been mentally blocked
:
Carson to Dorothy Freeman, February 1, 1958, Muskie.

“shut her mind”
:
Ibid.

“space age universe”
:
Ibid.

On April Fools’ Day 1958
:
Ibid., April 2, 1958, Muskie.

In the spring of 1945
: New Yorker
, May 26, 1945.

In April she agreed
:
Carson to Paul Brooks, April 20, 1958, Beinecke.

She at this point saw it as
:
From Paul Brooks’s internal Houghton Mifflin memo, “Report to the Executive Committee,” April 1, 1958, and Marie Rodell to Lovell Thompson, March 21, 1958, Beinecke.

Diamond signed a letter agreeing
:
Marie Rodell to Edwin Diamond, April 18, 1958, Beinecke.

But two days later
:
Marie Rodell to Edwin Diamond, May 5, 1958, Beinecke.

a few days later was again told
:
Joan Daves to Edwin Diamond, May 9, 1958, Beinecke. Daves was Rodell’s partner in the agency.

In mid-May, Paul Brooks stepped in
:
Paul Brooks to Edwin Diamond, May 26, 1958, Beinecke.

A few weeks later
:
Joan Daves to Miss Minahan, June 11, 1958, Beinecke. Minahan was Paul Brooks’s secretary.

Diamond, meanwhile, ignored
:
Edwin Diamond to Paul Brooks, June 24, 1958, Beinecke.

Brooks, who was on vacation
:
Paul Brooks to Edwin Diamond, July 21, 1958, Beinecke.

In June, Carson met with
:
Carson to Dorothy Freeman, June 12, 1958, Muskie.

“actually happy and excited”
:
Carson to Dorothy Freeman, October 20, 1958, Muskie.

On November 22, 1958, she suffered
:
Carson to Marjorie Spock, December 4, 1958, Beinecke.

By the end of the day
:
Carson to Dorothy Freeman, December 4, 1958, Muskie.

“half-baked at best”
:
Carson to Paul Brooks, February 14, 1959, Beinecke.

She told Brooks she was intrigued by
:
Ibid.

“not be so rash as to predict”
:
Ibid.

Over the course of the sixteen-day trial
: New York Times
, March 5, April 26, and June 24, 1958.

A surprise witness who appeared
:
Ibid., February 14, 1958.

The key witness for the government
:
Ibid., February 22 and 25, 1958.

Before the judge could issue
:
Ibid., April 26, 1958.

In June, the court issued a broad ruling
:
Ibid., June 24, 1958.

Although the plaintiffs contend
:
Ibid.

Wallace and his graduate students
:
George J. Wallace and Richard F. Bernard, “Tests Show 40 Species of Birds Poisoned by DDT,”
Audubon
, July–August 1963.

Locating and dealing with infected trees
: New York Times
, November 10, 1957.

Anthroposophy was the underlying principle
:
Spock,
Eurythmy
.

a woman named Mary Richards
:
Spock wrote to Carson on stationery engraved “Marjorie Spock–Mary T. Richards, Whitney Lane and Norgate Road, Glen Head Post Office, L.I., NY.”

Spock wrote to Carson immediately afterward
:
Marjorie Spock to Carson, June 6, 1958, Beinecke. 289
stopped in to meet Carson:
Ibid., August 16, 1958, Beinecke.

Carson insisted they address each other
:
Carson to Marjorie Spock, September 29, 1958, Beinecke.

“I can hardly wait until”
:
Marjorie Spock to Carson, May 11, 1959, Beinecke.

She mentioned an interview
:
Carson to Marjorie Spock, June 30, 1958, Beinecke.

Schneiderman said it was still unknown
:
Howard Schneiderman to Carson, October 13, 1958, Beinecke.

Carson told Spock she thought
:
Carson to Marjorie Spock, October 17, 1958, Beinecke.

Penicillin was first used
:
Henry Welch, “Problems of Antibiotics in Food as the Food and Drug Administration Sees Them,”
American Journal of Public Health
47, no. 6 (June 1957).

It should be emphasized that
:
Ibid.

Time
magazine reported that
: Time
, September 26, 1960.

Carson wrote a long letter to the editor
:
Carson to DeWitt Wallace, January 27, 1958, Beinecke. Wallace was the editor of
Reader’s Digest
.

Carson got an immediate answer
:
Walter B. Mahoney to Carson, January 30, 1958, Beinecke. Mahoney was a senior editor at
Reader’s Digest
, who answered because Wallace was out of the office when Carson’s letter arrived.

She wrote to the author
:
Carson to Robert Strother, June 19, 1959, Beinecke.

which he graciously agreed to do
:
Robert Strother to Carson, June 24, 1959, Beinecke.

In the spring of 1959
: New York Times
, August 24, 1959.

In 1958, a group called
:
Williams and Cantelon,
American Atom
, pp. 197–202.

A half century later
: New York Times
, December 13, 2010.

“virtually certain that genetic effects”
:
“Estimates and Evaluation of Fallout in the United States from Nuclear Weapons Testing Conducted Through 1962,” Report of the Federal Radiation Council, Report No. 4, May 1963 (JFK Library).

presented the United Nations with a petition
:
Mead and Hager,
Linus Pauling
, p. 213.

“Each nuclear bomb test”
:
Ibid.

Teale and his wife had visited Carson
:
Edwin Way Teale to Carson, September 12, 1954, Beinecke.

The Teales also shared
:
Ibid., March 18, 1956, Beinecke. The subject of cats came up in numerous letters between Teale and Carson.

Carson urged Teale to find a way
:
Carson to Edwin Way Teale, March 25, 1956, Beinecke.

Teale wrote to encourage her
:
Edwin Way Teale to Carson, May 26, 1958, Beinecke.

Paul Brooks shared this view
:
From Paul Brooks’s internal Houghton Mifflin memo, “Report to the Executive Committee,” April 1, 1958, Beinecke.

When Paul Brooks asked Carson about
:
Paul Brooks to Carson, February 13, 1959, Beinecke.

“I hate to advise you”
:
Carson to Paul Brooks, February 14, 1959, Beinecke.

Sometime in early 1959
:
Paul Brooks to Carson, May 25, 1959, Beinecke. Exactly when this title was proposed, or whose idea it was, can’t be determined.

Carson again felt only lukewarm
:
Carson to Paul Brooks, June 3, 1959, Beinecke. Carson seemed caught off-guard by Brooks’s reference to the new title. Although she said it “seems to wear pretty well” now that she had lived with it for a few weeks, Carson sounded less than enthusiastic, admitting only that her initial doubts “seem” to have disappeared.

In May, Brooks told Carson
:
Paul Brooks to Carson, May 25, 1959, Beinecke.

Carson wrote back to assure him
:
Carson to Paul Brooks, June 3, 1959, Beinecke.

Carson and Marie Rodell were alarmed
:
Marie Rodell to Paul Brooks, June 24, 1959, Beinecke.

Carson wrote to the publicity department
:
Carson to Anne Ford, July 6, 1959, Beinecke. Ford worked in the publicity department at Houghton Mifflin.

Filed away alongside
:
Carson’s undated handwritten notes for the book, Beinecke.

Both Carson and Roger were laid low
:
Carson to Anne Ford, August 7, 1959, Beinecke.

Carson did make time to
:
Ibid., August 27, 1959, Beinecke.

their car was hit by a truck
:
Carson to Paul Brooks, September 17, 1959, Beinecke.

In December 1959, Carson wrote
:
Ibid., December 3, 1959, Beinecke.

Carson also apologized
:
Ibid.

Brooks wrote back
:
Paul Brooks to Carson, December 21, 1959, Beinecke.

Lead, the other metallic residue
:
Kallet and Schlink,
100,000,000 Guinea Pigs
, p. 56.

“milk you give your children”
:
Longgood,
Poisons in Your Food
, p. 2.

One factor that makes DDT so effective
:
Ibid, p. 79.

Osmundsen accused Longgood of
: New York Times
, May 1, 1960.

Carson was aware of the controversy
:
Carson to Marjorie Spock, March 14, 1960, Beinecke.

It is a great problem to know how
:
Ibid.

In early November 1959
: New York Times
, November 10, 1959.

Grocers across the country
:
Ibid., November 11, 1959.

Aminotriazole had initially been tried
:
Ibid., November 12, 1959.

In Massachusetts, a crowd of nearly
:
Ibid., November 16, 1959.

In Wisconsin
:
Ibid., November 15, 1959.