I'm sending this PDF of a quite wonderful piece by Michael B. Smith, 
"Silence, Miss Carson!" Science, Gender, and the Reception of "Silent 
Spring", Feminist Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 
733-752, about the intense "criticism" Rachel Carson received upon 
publishing Silent Spring in October, 1962.

My essay contrasting Silent Spring with Michael Harrington's The 
Other America, published the same year, was published Monday in 
www.Counterpunch.org . (Scroll down the Left sidebar to find it!)

Here's one letter to The New Yorker that I found to be remarkable, 
and yet sadly typical:

"Miss Rachel Carson's reference to the selfishness of insecticide 
manufacturers probably reflects her Communist sympathies, like a lot 
of our writers these days. We can live without birds and animals, 
but, as the current market slump shows, we cannot live without 
business. As for insects, isn't it just like a woman to be scared to 
death of a few little bugs! As long as we have the H-bomb everything 
will be O.K."


Mitchel Cohen