The authoritative biography of the marine biologist and nature writer whose book Silent Spring inspired the global environmentalist movement. In a career that spanned from civil service to unlikely literary celebrity, Rachel Carson became one of the world’s seminal leaders in conservation. The 1962 publication of her book Silent Spring was a watershed event that led to the banning of DDT and launched the modern environmental movement. Growing up in poverty on a tiny Allegheny River farm, Carson attended the Pennsylvania College for Women on a scholarship. There, she studied science and writing before taking a job with the newly emerging Fish and Wildlife Service. In this definitive biography, Linda Lear traces the evolution of Carson’s private, professional, and public lives, from the origins of her dedication to natural science to her invaluable service as a brilliant, if reluctant, reformer. Drawing on unprecedented access to sources and interviews, Lear masterfully explores the roots of Carson’s powerful connection to the natural world, crafting a “fine portrait of the environmentalist as a human being” (Smithsonian). “Impressively researched and eminently readable . . . Compelling, not just for Carson devotees but for anyone concerned about the environment.” —People “[A] combination of meticulous scholarship and thoughtful, often poignant, writing.” —Science “A sweeping, analytic, first-class biography of Rachel Carson.” —Kirkus Reviews

This collection of essays celebrates the contribution of John Tudno Williams to the church, to biblical scholarship and teaching, and to the culture of Wales. Written by biblical scholars, historians, theologians, and authorities on Welsh culture, the papers gather around the central theme of the Bible: its interpretation and exegesis and its place in hymns as well as in the visual culture of Welsh Presbyterianism, in theological colleges, and in theological reflection and construction.

Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions describes in fascinating detail the historical origins and development of wildlife management in Yellowstone National Park, alongside shifting understandings of nature in science and culture. James A. Pritchard traces the idea of "natural conditions" through time, from the introduction of this concept by early ecologists in the 1930s. He tells several overlooked stories of Yellowstone wildlife, including a sensational scientific hunt for bears with bow and arrow, and the episode of the predator pelicans, which facilitated a fundamental shift toward protection of all wildlife in Yellowstone, and for the National Park Service as a whole. A prolonged debate regarding the elk herd on Yellowstone's northern range is addressed, along with the origins of the notion of natural regulation, and the reasons for ending direct reductions of elk. This story emphasizes how ecological science came to Yellowstone and to the National Park Service, subsequently developing over a period of decades. In the new afterword to this book Pritchard summarizes recent developments in wildlife science and management--such as the "ecology of fear" and trophic cascades--and discusses historical continuities in the role of the park as a wildlife refuge and the inestimable values of the park for wildlife conservation.