Rachel Carson: Chronology of Events Leading to the Writing of Silent Spring

1945

• July 15 -- Wrote letter to Reader's Digest proposing an article about DDT's effects on nature. Letter rejected.

1957

• Adopted her grandnephew, Roger Christie, after the death of his mother.

May 1957

• Long Island case in which counties were suing to stop the government from spraying their land.

1958

• January -- Olga Huckins wrote a letter to Carson describing the detrimental effects of pesticides on her bird sanctuary.
• Stopped Reader's Digest from publishing pesticide article about beneficial aerial spraying.
• February 7 -- E.B. White suggested she write the magazine article about the Long Island case.
• February -- Decided to write a magazine article, possibly a brief book.
• December -- Mother died.

1959

• Hired Jeanne Davis as an assistant.

1960

• Spring -- Learned she had malignant cancer.

1962

• June 16 -- New Yorker publishes first of series of excerpts from Silent Spring.
• Fall -- Silent Spring published.