LETTER: Autograph letter signed, to "Bob."
Rare Rachel Carson Letter
On Publication Day of Silent Spring
Carson, Rachel. Autograph letter signed, to “Bob” [Robert Cushman Murphy]; September 27, 1963; two leaves of stationery; rectos and versos, creased. Together with typed transcription. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
Written to Carson’s friend Robert Cushman Murphy – an ornithologist and the curator of birds at the Museum of Natural History – on the day of publication of Silent Spring. Carson says that she is happy about the news that she was named as the recipient of the Cullum Geographical Medal, but explains her frustration over a misunderstanding about a related speech she was asked to give:
When you said ‘We hope you will say something” I thought you meant a relatively brief response to the presentation. That, of course, I will do. However, when someone from the Society called a few days ago, I learned that I was down for the principal talk of the evening. Feeling somewhat like a heel, I said I didn’t really feel like I could do this, being already so heavily booked with speaking and writing commitments that there would just be no time to prepare it – but that I would of course speak briefly. (p. 1-2)
The Cullum Geographical Medal is one of the oldest and most prestigious awards made by the American Geographical Society.
Carson goes on to say that the most important reason for her declining to speak was that her health “is not at all good. I do not talk about this publicly – only to certain friends!” This is a touching and rather understated mention of her health, as she succumbed to cancer only seven months later. In addition to the Cullum award speech, Carson had already committed to two other brief speeches against her doctor’s orders, at the National Audubon award dinner, and at a Harvard Medical school event in Boston. She also had a speaking engagement in mid-October at the Kaiser Medical Foundation in San Francisco, where she would discuss “pollution of the environment.” These accolades are a testament to the immediate impact that Silent Spring had on public consciousness.
In spite of the praise that she had been receiving for the book, Carson had some detractors. She tells Murphy of a negative review she had read,
If you have seen this week's Sat. Eve Post you will know that I am not a “vindicated prophet” in the eyes of everyone. I think you may remember Mr. Diamond, for I think he approached you for some information on the Long Island case. In the very early days of my planning for Silent Spring he was engaged by Houghton Mifflin to do some of the 'leg work' to speed things along. He performed most unsatisfactorily and in a few weeks was fired. He is now having his small revenge in the Post's “Speaking Out” department. (p. 3)
The criticism Carson refers to was an editorial statement by Edwin Diamond in the Sept. 28, 1963 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. Diamond’s piece, "The Myth of the 'Pesticide Menace," bore the subtitle "Thanks to an emotional, alarmist book called 'Silent Spring,' Americans mistakenly believe their world is being poisoned," and in the piece, Diamond compared Carson to communist witch-hunter Joseph McCarthy.
Carson concludes the letter saying how she looks forward to seeing Murphy and his wife, Grace, in December, and sending her “warm good wishes” to them both.
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