"You know, I think its a toss up. First, you should read Strunk and White's Elements of Style and then you should read Linda Lear's Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature."
I am enraptured by this biography of Carson, completely. Carson--as a writer--took copious notes about herself, her surroundings, and those closest to her. Lear weaves together letters, journal entries, articles, and book content from Carson and others to give a full portrait of a writer, turned book-learned scientist with a flare for choosing too complicated hands-on research projects, turned government-employed technical writer, turned nature writer extraordinaire. The Sea Around Us has just been published ... and I can't wait to see how she gets on to writing her other works and how she finds herself a witness at a congressional hearing.
This work of Carson's in particular has special meaning for me. My mother read The Sea Around us when she was young, studied Marine Botany in college, and decided to sign up in the midst of her degree for a new sail training and oceanography program that included a voyage to Jamaica. The captain for the leg home to the states was Dr. George Nichols. Ann Ratcliff, years later, became my mom.
What fascinates me most about this book, besides its clear role in the creation of me, is that Carson wrote it because she deeply wanted it to exist. Our environmental work should always carry with it that commitment: I see this void; I want to fill it; I need to solicit all the help I can muster to make it happen. Carson's help came in the form of researchers, primary literature and reports, her family, her friendships, and, finally, the land, coast, and ocean that peaked her child-like curiosity.
May we all find something that makes us--at our core--so excited to be alive.
In an alternate reality, I imagine myself a modern-day Rachel. Problem is, I am out of practice with the note-taking.
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