Carson’s next book, The Sea Around Us, was published in 1951—the year after postwar austerity seemed finally over, and was a huge success. It’s not a fictionalized account, but a factual one, combining history and pre-history and geology and biology in a secular and celebratory hymn to the ocean. Many were eager to follow its author beneath the waves, into the ultramarine depths. Remember Captain Nemo, of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? Maybe you don’t, but in 1951, many readers did. Under the sea was a realm of adventure and wonder, and how thrilling it was to be taken on a tour by such a well-informed and enthusiastic guide! No mermaids, but on the other hand, marvels even greater. It was this book that put Rachel Carson on the national and international map.

  The Edge of the Sea, the third in Carson’s sea trilogy, came in 1955. This is the book with which I identified most closely then, when I was fifteen. It’s about beachcombing, something I myself had done a lot of along the coast of the Bay of Fundy during visits to my Nova Scotian relatives in the postwar summers of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The tide pools and caves and flora and starfish and gastropods of that shore were the same as those across the bay, so the first third of The Edge of the Sea was speaking about creatures I myself had seen. I still can’t pass a rock pool at low tide without looking in to see what might possibly be in there.

  In all three of these books there is one underlying refrain: Look. See. Observe. Learn. Wonder. Question. Conclude. Rachel Carson taught people to look at the sea, and to think about the sea, in fresh ways. She brought the same habits of mind to the observations of bird life—to the dwindling bird life she was noticing—that led to Silent Spring. Without her work on the oceans, she would not have developed the tools that enabled her investigation of the effects of pesticides. And without the fame and the platform that her sea trilogy had brought her, no one would have listened to her alarming message, once she had delivered it. And if no one had listened to it, there would no longer be any eagles, or peregrines, or—eventually—woodland warblers.

  Rachel Carson is one of the major grandparents of environmental movements today. We human beings owe her a vast debt, and if we make it to the twenty-second century as a species it will be due in part to her. It’s a huge pleasure to welcome this new edition of her sea trilogy. Thank you, Saint Rachel, wherever you may be.

  Acknowledgements

  My thanks first to my many readers of these essays and occasional pieces over the years, and for the responses that have come my way.

  Thanks to my sister and first editor, Ruth Atwood, who helped with the first and second weedings—plowing doggedly through the fields of verbiage, pruning an unmanageable number of short pieces down to a reasonable size. And to Lucia Cino, who sourced the originals and tracked down the printed versions, finding things that—quite frankly—I’d forgotten I’d written. During COVID, this was not the easiest of tasks, as libraries were closed—including the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, which contains many of the manuscripts. Thanks to the librarians, for helpfulness beyond the call of duty.

  Thanks to the editors of the many magazines and newspapers I’ve worked with for many years; and to my book editors on both sides of the Atlantic, whose thoughtfulness and enthusiasm have been so encouraging. This group includes Becky Hardie of Penguin Random House UK, Louise Dennys and Martha Kanya-Forstner of Penguin Random House Canada, Lee Boudreaux and LuAnn Walther of Penguin Random House US. Heather Sangster of Strong Finish again acted as the demon copy editor who picks every nit, including those yet unhatched. Jess Atwood Gibson attempts to save me from myself, not always successfully.

  Thanks to my now-retired agents, Phoebe Larmore and Vivienne Schuster; to the tireless Karolina Sutton of Curtis Brown; and to Caitlin Leydon, Claire Nozieres, Sophie Baker, Jodi Fabbri, and Katie Harrison, who so deftly handle foreign rights.

  Thanks also to those who keep me trundling through time and who remind me what day it is, including Lucia Cino of O.W. Toad Limited and Penny Kavanaugh; to V.J. Bauer, who designs and tends the website; and to Mike Stoyan and Sheldon Shoib, to Donald Bennett, to Bob Clark and Dave Cole.

  To Coleen Quinn, who makes sure I get out of the Writing Burrow and onto the open road; to Xiaolan Zhao and Vicky Dong; to Matthew Gibson, who fixes stuff; and to the Shock Doctors, for keeping the lights on, and to Evelyn Heskin, Ted Humphreys, Deanna Adams, and Randy Gardner, who help make the Writing Burrows habitable.

  And as always to Graeme Gibson, who was with us for most of the years in which these pieces were written. He always laughed at the jokes.

  Credits

  We would like to credit the following sources of the work contained in this volume:

  PART I: 2004 TO 2009 | WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

  “Scientific Romancing.” Presented as the Kesterton Lecture, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Jan. 22, 2004.

  p. 9: “Orwell and Me,” Guardian, June 16, 2003.

  “Frozen in Time: Introduction.” First published as the introduction to Owen Beattie and John Geiger, Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2004), 1–8.

  “From Eve to Dawn.” First published as book review “From Eve to Dawn by Marilyn French,” Times (UK), Aug. 21, 2004. Subsequently published as the foreword to Marilyn French, From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women, Vol. 1 (New York: Feminist Press, 2008), ix–xiv.

  “Polonia.” First published as “Polonia: In Response to ‘What Advice Would You Give the Young?’ ” In Dropped Threads 3: Beyond the Small Circle, ed. Marjorie Anderson (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2006), 9–18.

  pp. 29–30: Lord Polonius dialogue, in William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act I, Scene 3 (London: Globe Edition, 1864).

  “Somebody’s Daughter.” Written in 2005 for the UNESCO Literacy for Life program and first published in The Alphabet of Hope: Writers for Literacy (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2007), 13–16.

  p. 32: Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman), The Heart to Artemis: A Writer’s Memoirs (Middletown, CT: Paris Press / Wesleyan University Press, 2006), 14.

  “Five Visits to the Word-Hoard.” Presented as the Bill Duthie Memorial Lecture, Vancouver International Writers Festival, Vancouver, BC, Oct. 13, 2005. First published in Writing Life: Celebrated Canadian and International Authors on Writing and Life, ed. Constance Rooke (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006), 10–23.

  pp. 39–40: Robertson Davies, Fifth Business (Toronto: Penguin Books, 1977), 38–39. • p. 40: Alice Munro, “Cortes Island,” in The Love of a Good Woman (Toronto: Penguin Books, 1999), 143.

  “The Echo Maker.” First published as book review “In the Heart of the Heartland,” New York Review, Dec. 21, 2006.

  p. 51: “It’s about a disillusioned…”: Jeffrey Williams, “The Last Generalist: An Interview with Richard Powers,” Cultural Logic 2, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 16. • p. 51: “I am No One…”: Richard Powers, The Echo Maker (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), 64. • p. 52: “Nobody’s quite what…”: Ibid., 68. • pp. 52–53: “Love was not…”: Ibid., 267. • p. 53: “Even the intact…”: Ibid., 259. • pp. 53–54: “real or decoration…”: Ibid., 108. • p. 54: “living in the age…”: Ibid., 269. • p. 54: “Yo, Man…”: Ibid., 103. • p. 54: “The utter estrangement…”: Ibid., 108. • p. 55: “I am everywhere…”: L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (First published Chicago: George M. Hill Company, 1900), c. 15. • p. 57: “The outcome of…”: Powers, The Echo Maker, 443. • p. 58: “Doesn’t want to be…”: Ibid., 445. • p. 58: “To find the soul…”: Ibid., vii. • p. 59: “Just as good…”: Ibid., 447. • p. 59: “In some ways…”: Ibid.

  “Wetlands.” Speech presented at the Charles Sauriol Environmental Dinner celebrating the Canadian naturalist’s early leadership in wetlands protection, Toronto and Region Conservation Foundation, Toronto, ON, Nov. 9, 2006.

  “Trees of Life, Trees of Death.” Presented as a lecture honouring the centennial celebration of the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Apr. 5, 2007.

  p. 73: Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, trans. H.R. Huse (1472; New York: Rinehart, 1954). • p. 74: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1914), 52, 55.

  “Ryszard Kapuściński.” First published as book review “A Sense of Wonder,” Guardian, June 9, 2007.

  p. 81: Ryszard Kapuściński, Imperium, trans. Klara Glowczewska (New York: Vintage Books, 1995), 164. • p. 82: Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodotus, trans. Klara Glowczewska (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), 277.

  “Anne of Green Gables.” First published as the afterword to the New Canadian Library reissue of L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (Toronto: New Canadian Library / McClelland & Stewart, 2008), 355–61. Subsequently published as “Nobody Ever Did Want Me,” Guardian, Mar. 29, 2008.

  “Alice Munro: An Appreciation.” First published as the introduction to Alice Munro, Carried Away: A Selection of Stories (New York and Toronto: Everyman’s Library / Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), ix–xx. An edited version was subsequently published as “Alice Munro: An Appreciation by Margaret Atwood,” Guardian, Oct. 11, 2008.

  p. 94: Alice Munro, “The Turkey Season,” in Carried Away, 70. • p. 95: “The local paper…”: Alice Munro, “Meneseteung,” in Carried Away, 179. • p. 95: “Poems, even…”: Ibid., 198. • p. 96: Alice Munro, Lives of Girls and Women (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1971), 253. • p. 98: Ibid., 210. • p. 98: “In Hanratty…”: Munro, “Royal Beatings,” in Carried Away, 5. • pp. 98–99: “to see people…”: Ibid., 12. • p. 99: “She felt ashamed…”: Munro, “The Beggar Maid,” in Carried Away, 52. • p. 99: “a layer of loyalty…”: Ibid., 53. • p. 99: “I may have…”: Munro, “Meneseteung,” 202. • p. 100: Munro, “The Moons of Jupiter,” in Carried Away, 85. • p. 101: Munro, “The Turkey Season,” in Carried Away, 73. • p. 102: Munro, “The Beggar Maid,” 30. • p. 103: Munro, Lives of Girls and Women, 141. • p. 103: “It is real…”: Munro, “Differently,” in Carried Away, 229. • p. 103: “How hard it is…”: Munro, “The Progress of Love,” in Carried Away, 129. • p. 104: “that made him seem…”: Munro, “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You,” in Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1974), 3.

  “Ancient Balances.” First published in Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, CBC Massey Lectures series (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2008), 1–40. Established in 1961, the annual CBC Massey Lectures series is co-hosted by the University of Toronto’s Massey College, CBC Radio, and the House of Anansi Press.

  p. 117: Robert Wright, The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 204.

  “Scrooge: An Introduction.” First published as the introduction to Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books, illustrated by Arthur Rackham (London, New York, and Toronto: Everyman’s Library / Alfred A. Knopf, 2009), ix–xiii.

  “A Writing Life.” First published as “A Writer’s Life,” Guardian, Jan. 2009.

  PART II: 2010 TO 2013 | ART IS OUR NATURE

  “The Writer as Political Agent? Really?” First published in a special commemorative issue of the Index on Censorship journal as “Don’t Tell Us What to Write,” Index on Censorship 39, no. 4 (print, Dec. 1, 2010; online, Dec. 16, 2010): 58–63.

  “Literature and the Environment.” Speech presented at the International PEN Congress, Tokyo, Sept. 26, 2010.

  “Alice Munro.” First published as “Munro the Icon,” Guardian, May 30, 2009.

  “The Gift: Introduction.” First published as the foreword to the Canons reissue of Lewis Hyde, The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World (Edinburgh: Canongate Canons, 2012), vii–xi.

  “Bring Up the Bodies.” First published as book review “Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel—Review,” Guardian, May 4, 2012.

  “Rachel Carson Anniversary.” First published as book review “Margaret Atwood: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, 50 Years On,” Guardian, Dec. 7, 2010.

  p. 165: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 297.

  “The Futures Market: Stories We Tell About Times to Come.” Presented as the Grace A. Tanner Lecture in Human Values, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT, Apr. 2, 2013. Subsequently published by the Grace A. Tanner Lecture in Human Values (2013): 1–24.

  pp. 172–173: 2012 Calendar, Cabinet magazine (https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/​projects/​last_calendar.php). • p. 173: “Select a blue…”: Abracadabra forum, n.d. • p. 173: “Masters of Potato Energy…”: Wikia [now Fandom] scratchpad entry, n.d. • pp. 176–177: T.S. Eliot, “The Burial of the Dead” in The Waste Land (1922). • pp. 181–182: Naomi Alderman, “The Meaning of Zombies,” Granta, Nov. 20, 2011.

  “Why I Wrote MaddAddam.” First published for Wattpad, Aug. 30, 2013.

  “Seven Gothic Tales: Introduction.” First published as the introduction to Isak Dinesen, Seven Gothic Tales (London: The Folio Society, 2013), xi–xvi. Subsequently published as “Margaret Atwood on the Show-Stopping Isak Dinesen,” Guardian, Nov. 29, 2013.

  p. 189: “I well remember…”: Sara Stambaugh, “Isak Dinesen in America,” public lecture presented at the Canadian Initiative for Nordic Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Oct. 28, 1998. • pp. 189–190: “as you got…”: Isak Dinesen, “The Supper at Elsinore,” in Seven Gothic Tales, 224. • pp. 191–192: Dinesen, “The Deluge at Norderney,” in Seven Gothic Tales, 190.

  “Doctor Sleep.” First published as book review “Shine On,” New York Times, Sept. 13, 2013.

  “Doris Lessing.” First published as book review “Doris Lessing: A Model for Every Writer Coming Back from the Beyond,” Guardian, Nov. 18, 2013.

  “How to Change the World?” First published in Dutch translation in Nexus 63 (Spring 2013), this essay is a reflection on the topic of the panel discussions at the Nexus Conference, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Nexus Institute, Amsterdam, Dec. 2, 2012.

  p. 204: Ugo Bardi, “Cassandra’s Curse: How ‘The Limits to Growth’ Was Demonized,” The Oil Drum: Europe, Mar. 9, 2008 (http://theoildrum.com/​node/​3551). • p. 205: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics, Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4° Centigrade Warmer World Must be Avoided (Washington, DC: World Bank, Nov. 2012), https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/​handle/​10986/​11860.

  PART III: 2014 TO 2016 | WHICH IS TO BE MASTER

  “In Translationland.” Presented as the W.G. Sebald Lecture on Literary Translation, British Centre for Literary Translation, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, Feb. 18, 2014.

  p. 218: W.G. Sebald to Michael Hulse, “Letters to a Translator,” Little Star 5 (2014), https://littlestarjournal.com/​issues/. • p. 224: Edward Lear, “The Dong with the Luminous Nose,” in Laughable Lyrics: A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, &c. (London: Robert John Bush, 1877), unpag. • p. 225: “ ’Twas brillig…”: Lewis Carroll, “Jabberwocky,” in Alice Through the Looking-Glass (1871). • p. 225:“ ‘When I use a word…”: Ibid.

  “On Beauty.” First published as “Truth and Beauty,” Harper’s Bazaar (UK ed.), Oct. 2014, 302–5.

  “The Summer of the Stromatolites.” First published in That Summer: Great Writers on Life-Changing Summers, an online series available on Biographile (online), the now-defunct Penguin Random House website focused on biography, memoir, and truth in fiction, June 2014.

  “Kafka: Three Encounters.” Presented as part of the In the Shadow of Kafka series of documentaries and drama re-examining the life and legacy of Franz Kafka, BBC Radio 3, May 11, 2015.

  pp. 241–242: Franz Kafka, “Excursion into the Mountains,” in The Complete Stories (London, New York, and Toronto: The Schocken Kafka Library / Penguin Random House, 1995 [first published in English by Schocken 1946; story written between 1904 and 1912 and first published in German 1912]), 383.

  “Future Library.” Speech presented at the inaugural Future Library Handover Day, Oslo, May 26, 2015, for “Scribbler Moon,” the first manuscript solicited by the Future Library. This public artwork project aims to collect an original work by a popular writer every year from 2014 to 2114. These one hundred manuscripts will remain unread and unpublished until 2114, when they will be printed in limited edition using paper made from one thousand trees specially planted for the project. Subsequently published online at https://www.futurelibrary.no/​#/years/​2014.

  “Reflections on The Handmaid’s Tale.” Keynote speech presented at Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN, Nov. 3, 2015.

  p. 250: “The Good Wife’s Guide,” Housekeeping Monthly, May 13, 1955. Since proven to be a spoof: www.snopes.com/​fact-check/​how-to-be-a-good-wife/.

  “We Are Double-Plus Unfree.” First published as “Margaret Atwood: We Are Double-Plus Unfree,” Guardian, Sept. 18, 2015. Subsequently published as Freedom, Vintage Minis series (London: Vintage Classics / Penguin Random House UK, 2018).

  p. 259: “A Robin Red…”: William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence,” first published 1863. • p. 259: “Sufficient to have stood…”: John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book III, first published 1667. • p. 259: “Freedom, high-day…”: Caliban dialogue, in William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act II, Scene 2 (London: Globe Edition, 1864).