The Resume

(May 27, 1907-April 14, 1964)
Contributed to the Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, Nature and Reader's Digest
Wrote books 'Undersea (1937),' 'Under the Sea-Wind (1941),' 'The Sea Around Us (1951),' 'The Edge of the Sea (1955)' and 'Silent Spring (1962)'
Charter member of the National Women's Hall of Fame (1973)

Why she might be annoying:

Her book 'The Edge of the Sea' was turned into an Oscar-winning documentary film, but it severely embarrassed her to the point where she disowned it.
Her second book, 'Under the Sea-Wind,' though received well by critics, flopped commercially.
She did not take up a social voice against environmental hazards until the latter part of her life.

Why she might not be annoying:

She was a zoologist and a biologist.
She had to deal with sexism throughout most of her career.
Despite the notion at the time that a woman working in the Bureau of Fisheries was ridiculous, she outscored all other applicants on her civil service exam (1935).
She had to get by on a small amount of money for most of her writing career.
She took care of her mother and her nieces after her sister died.
She had a way of giving her love of the environment to others through her writing.
She wrote 'Silent Spring,' an expose of DDT pesticides and their harm to other creatures.
As a direct result of the huge international success of this book, the government banned the use of DDT and the modern environmental movement was created.
She had to deal with violent opposition to 'Silent Spring' being published from the chemical industry and ludicrous accusations that she was a 'hysterical woman unqualified to write such a book.'
She proved to be right about a large majority of her scientific observations, including correctly predicting multiple chemical sensitivity disorder.
Halfway through writing it, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She appeared on television in a debate with a chemical company spokesperson despite being gravely ill and carried her own.
She was only 56 years old when she died of breast cancer (1964).
She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1980).

Credit: Captain Howdy

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• A & E Biographies of the Millennium (Ranked: 87)
• About.com Top 100 Women of History [2009] (Ranked: 100)
• Captain Howdy's Profiles [Series 2]
• Google Modified Its Logo For My Birthday (Google Doodles)
• Guggenheim Fellowship Grant Recipients
• I am on a U.S. Postage Stamp [A-C]
• I Died in 1964 (Ranked: 57)
• I Have Breast Cancer
• Ladies Home Journal's 100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century
• Life Magazine's 100 People Who Changed the World [2010] (Ranked: 94)
• Look at Me, I'm in a Field or Meadow
• Modern Library's 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century (Ranked: 5)
• Newseum's 100 Stories of the Century (Ranked: 45)
• Profiles 13251-13500 (Ranked: 13437)
• The My Hero Project
• Time Magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century [1998]
• Time’s 100 Women of the Year [1920-2020] (Ranked: 1963)
• U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients
• Vehicle Names

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 8 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 9 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 13 Votes: 38.46% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 30 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 29 Votes: 48.28% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 103 Votes: 49.51% Annoying
In 2011, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
In 2010, Out of 41 Votes: 51.22% Annoying
In 2009, Out of 28 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
In 2008, Out of 37 Votes: 45.95% Annoying
In 2007, Out of 82 Votes: 46.34% Annoying
In 2006, Out of 180 Votes: 46.11% Annoying
In 2005, Out of 310 Votes: 41.94% Annoying