58 TA Ea vA DU BrOONe WoO sl sigg toe aie 
fied pollution or problem on a high- 
er scale than another consultant. 
In commenting upon population 
pressures, Ward and Dubos have 
this to say: “The general rate of 
population increase — of over 2.5 
per cent a year — is not only un- 
precedented in human history. It 
promises further increases of an 
all but inconceivable kind. The 
present 2 billion peoples in the 
developing world cannot fail to 
reach 5.5 billion by the year 2000. 
If there were no change in policies 
and life-styles, the 2020 figure 
could be 14 billion. By 2050, it 
could be 28 billion. The point at 
which, in the next century, the 
rate slows down and begins to 
stabilize is thus a cardinal prob- 
lem for all the world’s peoples.” 
The central question is not only 
do we have the resources to care 
for so large a population, but will 
the quality of life decline with so 
vast a populace on the Planet 
Earth? —Raymond Mostek 
THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 
RACHEL CARSON AT WORK 
by Paul Brooks 
Houghion Mifflin, 1972 
370 pp, $8.95 
If one were to characterize the 
work of Rachel Carson in three 
words, he might use the alliterative 
phrase “poet, propagandist, pro- 
phet.” 
This reviewer will become pro- 
phet for a moment, and readers 
who are now under 55 years old 
may check me out on it: “In the 
year 2000, Rachel Carson will be 
considered around the world as the 
greatest conservationist of the 
twentieth century.” 
The author, who is a Houghton 
Mifflin Company editor _ says: 
“Within a decade of its publica- 
tion, ‘Silent Spring’ has been rec- 
ognized throughout the world as 
one of those rare books that 
change the course of history — not 
through incitement to war or vio- 
lent revolution, but by altering the 
direction of man’s thinking.” 
“The House of Life’ is both a 
biography and a reader — not “‘tell- 
all” details of Miss Carson’s life, 
which the author says would have 
been distasteful to her, but which 
includes passages, sometimes brief, 
sometimes lengthy, from her books, 
“Under the Sea Wind,” “The Sea 
Around Us” “The Edges of the 
Sea,’ “Silent Spring” and “The 
Sense of Wonder,” as well as sev- 
eral magazine articles, one or two 
reprinted in full. Also are presented 
many excerpts from voluminous 
correspondence — letters to and 
from Rachel and her many close 
friends, some of whom were leaders 
in science and literature, not only 
in this country but abroad. In- 
cluded were such greats as William 
Beebe, Thor Heyerdahl, Edwin 
Way Teale and Judge Curtis Bok. 
In spite of the emphasis in “The 
House of Life” on Rachel’s written 
words, many of her personality 
traits do show through. 
The publisher declares: ‘“ ‘The 
House of Life’ is a perfect intro- 
duction to Rachel Carson for those 
who are coming to her work for 
the first time. To the millions who 
already admire her as a writer and 
a prophet, it will provide new in- 
sights into her character and new 
material from her own hand.” 
The paramount drive in Rachel’s 
life, shown in both her writing and 
her activities, was “reverence for 
life’, the phrase credited to Dr. 
Albert Schweitzer to whom “Silent 
Spring” was dedicated. This is re- 
flected in her often related habit, 
when finishing with microscopic 
examination of organisms in a pail 
of sea water, of returning the water 
to the ocean so every tiny creature 
possible could survive. 
