Rosalie Edge, hawk of mercy : the activist who saved nature from the conservationists / Dyana Z. Furmansky ; with a foreword by Bill McKibben & an afterword by Roland C. Clement.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zaslowsky, Dyan.

Series:

Wormsloe Foundation Nature Book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Conservationists--United States--Biography.

Conservationists.

Suffragists--United States--Biography.

Suffragists.

Edge, Rosalie, 1877-1962.

Edge, Rosalie.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (351 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Rosalie Edge (1877-1962) was the first American woman to achieve national renown as a conservationist. Dyana Z. Furmansky draws on Edge's personal papers and on interviews with family members and associates to portray an implacable, indomitable personality whose activism earned her the names "Joan of Arc" and "hellcat." A progressive New York socialite and veteran suffragist, Edge did not join the conservation movement until her early fifties. Nonetheless, her legacy of achievements-called "widespread and monumental" by the New Yorker -forms a crucial link between the eras defined by John Muir and Rachel Carson. An early voice against the indiscriminate use of toxins and pesticides, Edge reported evidence about the dangers of DDT fourteen years before Carson's Silent Spring was published. Today, Edge is most widely remembered for establishing Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, the world's first refuge for birds of prey. Founded in 1934 and located in eastern Pennsylvania, Hawk Mountain was cited in Silent Spring as an "especially significant" source of data. In 1930, Edge formed the militant Emergency Conservation Committee, which not only railed against the complacency of the Bureau of Biological Survey, Audubon Society, U.S. Forest Service, and other stewardship organizations but also exposed the complicity of some in the squandering of our natural heritage. Edge played key roles in the establishment of Olympic and Kings Canyon National Parks and the expansion of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Filled with new insights into a tumultuous period in American conservation, this is the life story of an unforgettable individual whose work influenced the first generation of environmentalists, including the founders of the Wilderness Society, Nature Conservancy, and Environmental Defense Fund.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Foreword""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction""; ""PART ONE""; ""1 Noblest Girl""; ""2 Wife of Charles Noel Edge""; ""3 First Awakening""; ""PART TWO""; ""4 Amateur and Dilettante""; ""5 Like a Man""; ""6 A Common Scold""; ""7 Sweet Reasonableness""; ""8 M. R. Edge, Lessee""; ""PART THREE""; ""9 Canadian Spy""; ""10 Hawk of Mercy""; ""11 Hellcat""; ""12 Implacable""; ""Afterword""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""; ""A""; ""B""; ""C""; ""D""; ""E""; ""F""; ""G""; ""H""; ""I""; ""J""; ""K""; ""L""; ""M""; ""N""; ""O""; ""P""; ""Q""; ""R""; ""S""; ""T""; ""U""; ""V""

""W""""Y""; ""Z""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-297) and index.

ISBN:

9786612919558

9781282919556

1282919555

9780820338965

0820338966

OCLC:

692327507