The Sea around Us - Softcover

Carson, Rachel L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451621646 ISBN 13: 9780451621641

Publisher: Signet, 1954

Synopsis

Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us was a phenomenal success. Rachel Carson's rare ability to combine scientific insight with moving, poetic prose catapulted her book to first place on The New York Times bestseller list, where it remained on top for thirty-one consecutive weeks. It stayed on the list for more than a year and a half and ultimately sold well over a million copies, has been translated into 28 languages, inspired an Academy Award-winning documentary, and won both the 1952 National Book Award and the John Burroughs Medal.
This commemorative edition has over 130 beautiful, full color illustrations from all over the world--everything from breaching whales, Christmas Tree worms and phosphorescent shrimp, to fur seals, flashlight fish, and giant squid. The volume features a foreword by Carl Safina, a founder of the Blue Ocean Institute; an introduction by explorer Robert D. Ballard, renowned for his role in finding the Titanic as well as for his discovery of life around deep-sea hydrothermal vents; and an afterword by Brian J. Skinner, an eminent geologist and former president of the Geological Society of America.
The book itself remains as fresh today as when it first appeared. Carson's writing teems with stunning, memorable images--the newly formed Earth cooling beneath an endlessly overcast sky; the centuries of nonstop rain that created the oceans; incredibly powerful tides moving 100 billion tons of water daily in the Bay of Fundy. Quite simply, she captures the mystery and allure of the ocean with a compelling blend of imagination and expertise.
For anyone who loves to wander the shore, sail the ocean, or ponder what lies beneath the waves, this illustrated special edition of The Sea Around Us will make a perfect gift.

About this title

About the Author

Rachel Carson was named by Time magazine one of the top 100 Scientists and Thinkers of the twentieth century. A biologist, writer, and ecologist, she also wrote Under the Sea Wind and Silent Spring, one of the seminal books of the environmental movement in America. She was a charter member of the Ecology Hall of Fame.
Carl Safina is recipient of the Pew Scholars Award in Conservation and the Environment as well as a John Burroughs Medal. He is also a MacArthur Fellow.
Robert D. Ballard is best known for his discovery of deep-sea wrecks such as the Titanic. The president of the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut, he led the 1977 expedition that first found life around hydrothermal vents in the sea floor, a major scientific discovery. He is Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and the Director of the Institute of Archaeological Oceanography.
Brian J. Skinner is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University and a past president of the Geological Society of America. He co-edited The Oxford Companion to the Earth.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Before the first living cell was created, there may have been many trials and failures. It seems probable that, within the warm saltiness of the primeval sea, certain organic substances were fashioned from carbon dioxide, sulphur, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and calcium. Perhaps these were transition steps from which the complex molecules of protoplasm arose-molecules that somehow acquired the ability to reproduce themselves and begin the endless stream of life. It is doubtful that the first life possessed the substance chlorophyll, with which plants in sunlight transform lifeless chemicals into the living stuff of their tissues. Little sunshine could enter their dim world, penetrating the cloud banks from which fell the endless rains. Probably the sea's first children lived on the organic substances then present in the ocean waters, or, like the iron and sulphur bacteria that exist today, lived directly on inorganic food.

Edition details

• Publisher: Signet
• Publication date: 1954
• ISBN 10: 0451621646
• ISBN 13: 9780451621641
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English