First published in 1951, Rachel Carson's "The Sea Around Us" spent
a year and a half on the bestseller list. It won the John Burroughs
Medal and the National Book Award. A documentary about it won an
Oscar. It was translated into 28 languages. Not long after
publishing it, Carson would begin work on "Silent Spring." The rest,
as they say, is history. Now Oxford University Press has reissued
"The Sea Around Us" in a majestic edition, incorporating attractive
photographs, a preface, foreword, introduction, and an excellent
afterword by Brian J. Skinner. The pages are broad and smooth and
heavy; turning them, you feel you are in the presence of greatness.
But what is so sweet and powerful about this book, written before we
had satellites or an understanding of plate tectonics, is that it
doesn't need any of the new edition's upmarket trappings. The prose
is true and fluid and above all evocative, and delivers all the
passion and wonder it did a half-century ago. Sure, as Carl Safina
writes in his foreword, Carson "remains a spiritual leader, capable
of conveying a sense of direction toward how we ought to poise
ourselves in the world," and you can learn plenty about the oceans
from her, but I think this book should be read first and foremost
because it has permanent artistic value, because it is literature.
And I mean literature in the best sense: popular, beautiful, deeply
moving. "The Boston Globe" 18.Jan.04