Silent Spring (3 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Drawings by Lois and Louis Darline (illustrator). Second Printing. Some edge wear to boards at top of spine and at corners; dust jacket has chips along the top edge; otherwise a solid, clean copy with no marking or underlining; collectible condition; 368 pages, dust jacket is protected by a mylar cover. Book.

Hardcover. Written for U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as 'The world of waters', this grew into Under the Sea Wind (1941) - Entire volume offered Conclusion: 'Beneath tropical seas, in depths of 1000 to 1500 fathoms, calcareous oozes cover nearly a third of the ocean floor; while the colder waters of the temperate and polar regions release to the underlying bottom the silicious remains of diatoms and Radiolaria. In the red clay that carpets the great deeps at 3000 fathoms or more, such delicate skeletons are extremely rare. Among the few organic remains not dissolved before they reach these cold and silent depths are the ear bones of whales and the teeth of sharks. / Thus we see the parts of the plan fall into place: the water receiving from earth and air the simple materials, storing them up until the gathering energy of the spring sun wakens the sleeping plants to a burst of dynamic activity, hungry swarms of planktonic animals growing and multiplying upon the abundant plants, and themselves falling prey to the shoals of fish; all, in the end, to be redissolved into their component substances when the inexorable laws of the sea demand it. Individual elements are lost to view, only to reappear again and again in different incarnations in a kind of material immortality. Kindred forces to those which, in some period inconceivably remote, gave birth to that primeval bit of protoplasm tossing on the ancient seas continue their mighty and incomprehensible work. Against this cosmic background the life span of a particular plant or animal appears, not as a drama complete in itself, but only as a brief interlude in a panorama of endless change.' Good ex-lib. slate buckram. Adverts (but not wrappers) bound in.

Cloth. Condition: Near fine. Dust Jacket Condition: near fine. Signed first edition of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, from the library of fellow conservationist James W. Eike, the president of the Virginia Society of Ornithology. (illustrator). First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, x, [6], 368pp. Green cloth, gilt title on spine and cover. Yellow top-stain, patterned endpapers. Stated "First Printing" on copyright page. Solid text block, slight bumps to edges of spine, a near fine example. In the publisher's first state dust jacket, $5.00 retail price on front flap, chipping to spine and corners, touch of shelf wear, a vibrant example. Thin dampstain along bottom edge of rear flap, faint stain to bottom edge of text block, no impact to text or stability of jacket. Housed in a custom black morocco clamshell, title in gilt on green label over spine. This copy belonged to Mr. and Mrs. James W. Eike, with his ownership stamp on the half title. Inscribed by the author on the half title: "Best Wishes / Rachel Carson." A beautiful example of a landmark work in environmental science and public health. James W. Eike (1911-1983), the recipient of this copy, began working for the U.S. Public Health Service in 1934. He went on to work for the Civil Service Commission, the U.S. State Department, and retired from the U.S. Information Agency in 1970. Eike joined the Virginia Society of Ornithology (VSO) in 1933, serving as president from 1950-1952 and again from 1969-1971. His fifty years of membership is commemorated with the James W. Eike Service Award, recognizing VSO members for their outstanding conservation efforts and service to the organization. Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was a pioneering environmentalist who raised global awareness about the dangers of synthetic pesticides like DDT, both for humans and the biosphere. Her writing and activism is credited with inspiring numerous legislative movements and the eventual creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Signed.