Under the Sea-Wind.

Her first and favourite. First UK edition, first impression, of the first book by naturalist Rachel Carson (1907-1964), author of Silent Spring.

Carson worked as a biologist for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and Under the Sea Wind began as an eleven-page introduction to a government brochure, then was developed into an article for the Atlantic Monthly in 1937. It was expanded into a book and published by Simon and Schuster in the US in 1941, but sales were poor despite good reviews, possibly due to the country entering the Second World War. In 1951 Carson's next book, The Sea Around Us, became a best-seller, and Under the Sea Wind was republished in the US and appeared for the first time in the UK (with a dash in the title). The text is divided into three parts, each following the life of a different animal: a sanderling, a mackerel, and an eel. It remained Carson's favourite among all her books.

First UK edition, first impression; 8vo; 2 plates, illustrations within the text, spotting to title, endpapers, edges of text block, and occasionally to contents; original blue cloth, titles to spine and publisher's crest to upper board gilt, cloth rubbed at the tips and spotted, especially to the spine, a very good copy in the rubbed and toned jacket with some spots, nicks, and short splits at the edges; 239pp.