The first book of a great environmentalist
CARSON, Rachel. Under the Sea-wind. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1941.
8vo. Original cloth and wrapper; pp. 314, with 8 plates by Howard Frech, text illustrations; a little chipping to edges of dustwrapper with soiling to rear, otherwise near fine.
First edition, very rare.
This book, the precursor to The Sea Around Us, had the bad luck to be published in the same week as Pearl Harbor. Consequently, fewer than 1000 copies of the first edition were sold and the book disappeared into obscurity. It was published again in the wake of the success of book and film of The Sea Around Us and this time found itself firmly in the public eye. Its tripartite structure follows the path from the shore to the open sea to the ocean bed, starting on the coast of North Carolina, then following the life of a mackerel and ending with the eel. It has Carson's characteristic blend of poetry and science.
#2120153