Silent Spring
Rachel Carson was born in Pennsylvania in 1907 and grew up on her family’s 65-acre farm. She developed an appreciation and understanding of nature from a young age. After graduating in biology, she studied for an MA at Johns Hopkins University and went on to pursue a teaching post. In 1936, Carson was employed as an aquatic biologist at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and it was during her time here that she researched and wrote more articles for publication. One of these formed the basis of her first book, Under the Sea-Wind (1941). The Sea Around Us (1951) and The Edge of the Sea (1955) followed to critical acclaim but it was her fourth book, Silent Spring (1962) that brought the world’s attention to both Carson and the environmental catastrophe that was the subject of her book. Carson died in 1964 in her home in Maryland and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter.
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than 50 books of fiction, poetry, graphic novels and critical essays. Her novels include The Blind Assassin (2000), winner of the Booker Prize, Alias Grace (1996), The Robber Bride (1993), Cat’s Eye (1988), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and The Penelopiad (2005). Recent novels include the MaddAddam trilogy: the Giller and Booker prize-nominated Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013). Dearly is her latest volume of poetry (2020). Atwood’s most recent novel, The Testaments (2019), the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, jointly won the Man Booker Prize. Atwood received the Peace Prize in 2017 and has been awarded the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize and the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in Toronto.