Rachel Carson and the Veery

BirdNote^® 
Rachel Carson and the Veery 
Written by Liza Yeager

This is BirdNote.

         [Veery song]

Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring, had a really serious relationship with a woman named Dorothy Freeman. They wrote love letters to each other. And in those  letters, they wrote a lot about one bird that became really special to them: the Veery, a type of thrush. The Veery is pretty plain-looking, but it has a particularly beautiful song.

         [Veery song]

Hearing that song — and hearing it together — became kind of a quest for them. Here’s an excerpt from one of Carson’s early letters to Freeman: 

"I think it is quite possible for you and me and the Veeries to be together in some magical time and place next June."

Carson and Freeman lived many states apart. But the Veeries brought them together, despite the distance:

"I learned the other day while I was in Rock Creek Park listening to Veeries and wishing for you, you were walking along your road listening to Wood Thrushes and wishing for me."

You can hear the full story about Rachel Carson’s love for Dorothy Freeman and the Veeries on our website, BirdNote.org. I’m Liza Yeager.

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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. ML94386 Veery song recorded by W Hershberger, Maryland, June.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2020 BirdNote January 2020/2022 & June 2026
Narrator: Liza Yeager

ID#  carsonr-05b-2020-01-07     carsonr-05b

References: This story was based on the scholarship of Lida Maxwell. She wrote about Carson and Freeman in the paper Queer/Love/Bird Extinction: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring as a Work of Love, published in Political Theory.