tics, inspiring me to write my firstbook. Under the Sea Wind debuted in 1941 to critical acclaim in both literary andscientific circles but sales plummeted with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.1942 I began working for the Fish and Wildlife Service promoting fish as analternative to foods in short supply because of the war. By 1948 I moved into anexclusively male domain, earning the grade of biologist, and becoming the editor-in-chiefof the Information Division. It was not an easy climb though; my close friend andassociate Bob Hines once said I was an able executive with almost a man’s administrativequalities. But it was Hines who also said that my qualities of zest and humor made eventhe dull bureaucratic procedure a matter of quite fun. My second book The Sea Around Us written in 1950 was “a book for anyonewho has looked out upon the ocean with wonder.” I won the George WestinghouseScience Writing Award for one chapter of that book entitled “The Birth of an Island.” The book itself remained on the New York Times bestseller list for eighty-one weeks. Marie Rodell decided to re-release my first book at this time and I then had two books onthe best sellers list.The success of the two books had given me the financial security my mother and Ihad been needing so I could finally leave the Fish and Wildlife Service to dedicate my lifeto writing. I moved to the coast of Maine and began working on my third book, TheEdge of the Sea in 1955 which would detail life at the ocean’s shoreline. This bookremained on the best sellers list for twenty-three weeks. During 1956 one of my nieces had passed away and I adopted her five year old son Roger who I had always been especially fond of. My mother passed away one yearlater at the age of eighty-eight. I received a letter from Olga Owens Huckins in 1958 which inspired me to writemy fourth book Silent Spring which I completed in 1962. In her letter she told me sh...
