The Edge of the Sea

27. The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson
reader: Kaiulani Lee
OPD: 1955
format: 8:45 audible audiobook (288 pages in the original edition)
acquired: from Audible included listened: Apr 10-29
rating: 3½ ?
genre/style: Nature theme: Random audio
locations: The North American Atlantic coast
about the author: 1907 –1964, born on a family farm near Springdale, Pennsylvania. Carson was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose influential book Silent Spring (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.

This was Carson's 3rd book. Early on she writes:

"There is a common thread that links these scenes and memories—the spectacle of life in all its varied manifestations as it has show more appeared, evolved, and sometimes died out. Underlying the beauty of the spectacle there is meaning and significance. It is the elusiveness of that meaning that haunts us, that sends us again and again into the natural world where the key to the riddle is hidden."

And she follows up, searching for that riddle with extensive detail. Here she combs the North American Atlantic cost, from Canada and New England's rocks and large tides to Florida's keys and the Ten Thousand Islands behind them. From barnacles (which I learned are arthropods, like lobsters and crabs, and not bivalves) to algae, seaweed, snails and worms. She zooms in again and again, pulling out the microscope at times, checking the different tidal zones and pools and niches.

I liked [The Sea Around Us] much more than this one. I just found that she asked a lot of me here, a casual listener. It was tough on my little attention span, focusing on animal after animal. Perhaps better a book to dip into, instead of march through. There is a lot of info within.

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/348551#8135955 show less

Writing in the 1950s Rachel Carson combined marine biology with a warning about the dangers of global warming. She provided considerable biological detail about the fauna and flora (animals and plants) found in the strip of land between the tide lines, i.e., the area between the lines created by low tides and high tides along the North American east coast from Newfoundland to the southern tip of Florida. This long stretch of coastline naturally breaks into three parts: rocky shores in the north, sandy beaches in the middle, and coral reefs in the south, and she discussed in detail the plant and animal life in each section. This book would make an excellent field guide, and the fact it is still available for purchase in bookstores in show more 2024 adds considerable credibility to its relevance and soundness.

Readers also benefit from the detailed drawings of illustrator Bob Hines. show less

Wonderful written. The book is mostly a catalog of beach animals, but sill a page turner.

It's not that I'm not liking it, it's that I only have time to read when I go to bed at night . . . and this is a bit too field guide-y for me at that time of day.

In “The Edge of the Sea,” Rachel Carson writes with a beautiful clarity about our very human attraction to the seashore and the deeper understanding we can find there.

My full review here: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2016/06/12/edge-of-the-sea/

green

A classic