American Auther Preposal

American Author Proposal
By: Regan Johnson
1/24/2008

A remarkable and revolutionary woman, Rachel Carson, was born in 1907 in Pennsylvania. She is most famous for her book “Silent Spring”, published in 1962. I am interested in Carson because she wrote that particular book. “Silent Spring” is said to have started the environmentalist movement in America, and lately I found that I have been interested in the environment and how we can help save it. I find that it will be helpful to see what prompted this now very popular movement. I also want to read this profound and well known piece because of a moment that occurred in my life. When I was about nine years of age my father and I were in the car about to enter onto the freeway. We were just talking and I remember him starting to talk about “Silent Spring” and the author, Rachel Carson. He raved about this book and woman with a great passion and respect. I remember how enthusiastic my father was about this book as well as how important and profound the author was to my dad. For some reason I have not been able to forget the name of Carson’s most famous book or to get that one scene out of my mind.

Like I have said before, Carson had and has made a huge impact on American society; after all, she opened the eyes of many, many Americans and showed them how important and how endangered the environment is. She started one of the largest and most popular movements alive today: environmentalism. This movement has flourished lately due to some issues. The biggest issue known today is Global Warming. Many people, like Al Gore, have taken an interest in the environment and have dedicated their lives to teaching people how to treat the environment as well as how we affect it. It has also been popular to start and buy clothing lines that are all natural and organic, which helps the world immensely. Commercials have also taken an interest in helping spread the issues around Global Warming. More and more people are becoming aware of how endangered the environment is and how much we affect it. This probably would never be happening if it weren’t for Rachel Carson. If it weren’t for her radical thinking, my guess is that we would have never taken responsibility for our mistakes (to put it lightly) or even had known how much danger we were putting ourselves and the environment into.

My guess is that Rachel Carson’s books are so full of information and inspiration that it won’t be difficult to create a thesis around her and her writing. My thesis will probably relate to her impact on society and why her work was so inspirational and created such a strong and important stir among numerous of Americans.

I plan on reading the following books by Carson: “Silent Spring” again published in 1962, “The Sea Around Us” a bestseller published in 1951 and “The Sense of Wonder” published in 1965.

I am excited to read her works, especially to read the book that opened America’s eyes to the natural world: “Silent Spring”.