e washorrified to find birds dead and dying throughout her property. A few days earlier localagencies conducted massive, unannounced spraying of the pesticide DDT. I had longsuspected the dangers posed by the use of DDT. I researched the matter and the resultswere frightening and I felt the whole story needed to be put in a book. I believe it was mybook that influenced John F. Kennedy to form a special government group to investigateand control the use of pesticides under the direction of the President’s Science AdvisoryCommittee. I sold a quarter of a million copies of that book, nut not without it sparking afirestorm of public outrage which I had to endure while suffering through a catalog ofillnesses.On April 14, 1964, I passed away at age fifty-six of breast cancer but I was happyto have lived long enough to receive such awards as the Schweitzer Medal of the AnimalWelfare Institute, The National Wildlife Federation’s “Conservation of the Year,” and thefirst medal awarded to a woman by the National Audobon Society. Even long after mydeath in 1980, I was awarded the highest civilian decoration in the nation, The PresidentialMedal of Freedom....
