Product Description

"The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place." A book to be read for pleasure as well as a practical identification guide, The Edge of the Sea introduces a world of teeming life where the sea meets the land. A new generation of readers is discovering why Rachel Carson's books have become cornerstones of the environmental and conservation movements. New introduction by Sue Hubbell. (A Mariner Reissue)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #375994 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780395924969
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Catching the life breath of science on the still glass of poetry." -- Review

Review

About the Author
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) spent most of her professional life as a marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. By the late 1950s, she had written three lyrical, popular books about the sea, including the best-selling The Sea Around Us, and had become the Bee Plumber 76: most respected science writer in America. She completed Silent Spring against formidable personal odds, and with it shaped a powerful social movement that has altered the course of history.

Bob Hines is a contributor for Houghton Mifflin Company (Mariner Books) titles including: "The Edge of the Sea." He is well known for his illustrations of wildlife.

Sue Hubbell is the author of, among other works, A Country Year and A Book of Bees, which was selected as a New York Times Notable Book. She lives in Maine and Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Informative as a textbook, entertainment like a novel
I just finished this and I can't wait to read the rest of the author's work. Carson has a gift for describing the world around her and a command of the language that few seem to appreciate today. This is basically a natural history book written as if it where a novel. In "Edge of the Sea" she describes seashores, the environment and how it defines the animals and plants that a visitor will see. She concentrates on America's East Coast. The text left me with a longing to be there. Where modern writers would use pictures, Carson uses words. This book would be good (4 stars) for anyone who enjoys written imagery. If you already love the sea then it deserves 5.

Simply Beautiful
Having never heard of Rachel Carson except in relation to "Silent Spring", I was pleasantly surprised on first reading her writing in this book by the masterly and near-poetic elegance of her prose. Written in the 1950s, before nature documentaries allowed most of us to see the wonders of marine life with our own eyes, Carson's ability to introduce those wonders to us through evocatively-written description alone (with occasional illustrations) remains truly amazing. The problem is that a generation raised on visual stimuli would probably find it quite difficult to sustain enough patience to go through the whole book, since it does make substantial demands on one's sense of imagination. I found myself struggling by the time I had finished two chapters - even though each chapter is generally about a different kind of seashore (rock, sand, or coral reef), trying to visualise one fascinating organism after another just got rather tedious and confusing. My recommendation to other readers would be to maximise your enjoyment of this book by reading it at the seaside, or in conjunction with a relevant documentary on the Discovery Channel.

Good on details
Carson takes a more detailed look at life on the edge of the sea. Having been near one of the areas she mentnioned helped make the subject matter more personal. However, she didn't drag me into this book like I was when I read some of her other works. I felt it to be a little dull in places, even though the the information was interesting throughout the book. Certainly worth reading if you're looking for an introduction to life on the edge of the ocean.