Book Description
A definitive biography of a contemporary literary icon whose life was a web of contradictions. Cahalan sets the record straight on "Cactus Ed," separating fact from fiction to show that much of the myth surrounding Abbey was self-created and self-perpetuated. This meticulous work gives readers the most complete picture to date of the writer's life-and a fuller, more human Abbey than most have ever known. The book contains 30 photographs, capturing scenes ranging from Abbey's childhood to his burial site.
Customer Reviews:
Meet the real Cactus Ed: Alcoholic Ed.......2006-05-26
It's true that Cahalan never uses the term, and Abbey himself certainly never fesses up to it, but it's clear that's the case, as a careful reading of this great biography shows, especially if you've read the bulk of Abbey's own work as well, as I have.
Clues? The womanizing and multiple marriages, whether or not Abbey was a misogynist. The immature and obstinate behavior (Example A: Abbey rolling a tire off the South Rim of the Grand Canyon). These alone, if seen in the context of someone's drinking, almost stamp them on the forehead as a stereotypical Type A male alcoholic. If they don't, the whopper storytelling part of his personality does.
But, of course, that's not all.
Although it turned out to be an incorrect diagnosis, normally, there's only one reason you get a diagnosis of pancreatitis without some other medical condition being indicated along with it. And, of course, Abbey's ultimately fatal esophogal varisces are traceable directly to alcohol.
Now, that said, in addition to never owning up to being an alcoholic, Abbey never quit, contrary to myth that even Cahalan doesn't appear to catch.
That's clear from Abbey's final years journals, from which Douglas Peacock, Abbey's model for Hayduke, quotes in "Walking it Off."
In early 1988, Abbey describes the effects of withrdrawal from the codeine he had been using to try to suppress chronic coughing that aggravated the varisces. He explicitly says beer does not ease his codeine withdrawal symptoms.
To the degree that Cahalan, without labeling or analyzing, does catch Abbey's alcoholic behavior, he described it well. Unfortunately, whether because of lack of experience in dealing with the breed or whatever, he unfortunately doesn't analyze Abbey.
The alcoholism is of a piece with other parts of Abbey behind his legendary self-spinning, a glimpse behind that sometimes Abbey gives us himself.
Abbey adamantly insisted he was NOT an environmentalist. Well, the Grand Canyon incident, among MANY others, prove that point all too well. Again, Cahalan sees the pieces, but doesn't do the dot-connecting as much as one might like.
What Abbey really was, as shown by things such as his fondness for 20h century classical music mentioned in "Desert Solitaire," was an existentialist philosopher with a heavy dollop of libertarianism on top. If he had fallen in love with another way of expressing and getting in touch with both existential and libertarian selves, he wouldn't have been out in Arches National Monument.
And yes, we would have been poorer for that, but not as much poorer as Abbey idolators would have us believe.
Abbey deprived the environmental world, the world at large, and many people around, of what could have been much more that he had to offer. But, that's because he was ultimately depriving his own self of -- himself.
But, again, Cahalan, while laying out all the pieces, doesn't quite put the jigsaw together.
That's the prime reason this otherwise excellent bio falls a star short of the top.
Leave it to Abbey.......2006-05-06
Reading about Abbey provided me with the realization that some people in this world really do have a "life" - without many constraints, guilt, or heavy-duty obligations that are often tagged on to an individual by nature of his/her duty to satisfy others. Cahalan presents Abbey as a human being in search of his soul while dispelling the myths of his misogyny. Made more interesting by the fact that Cahalan was my professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2003, I easily became immersed into the journeys of Abbey, who like myself, see no boundaries for where I travel or where I go in the future. A great piece of interesting literature!! From the sands of Abbey's Southwest to the sands of Kuwait, I have fallen victim! This inspires me to write my own account of the life of an American woman who finds her passion in the deserts of Kuwait.
A very interesting book about a great writer.......2005-09-18
Having never heard of Edward Abbey or any book he ever wrote (I picked up the book because it was the first on a shelf at the library) I was absorbed by this guy's life and tribulations. I even made it a point to start to read A Fool's Progress. I'm glad I took the time to read the book because it makes you realize that the guy was human, introverted and not the eco-rebel everyone thought he was. He was a writer. I love his mantra:
1) Write Right!
2) Write Good!
3) Write On!
Though he had his troubles with family life I thought his struggles with life, writing and being successful made for a good story.
Terrific book on Abbey's life and writing!.......2005-02-21
I had never even heard of Edward Abbey until Dr. James Cahalan's book was published. I live approximately 35 miles from Indiana and Home, Pennsylvania, and happened to catch an interview of Dr. Cahalan on my NBC affiliate in Johnstown.
This sparked an interest in Abbey and I immediately bought "The Fool's Progress." I struggled to get through 250 of the 513 pages of his "Fat Masterpiece."
I received Dr. Cahalan's "Edward Abbey: a life" as a gift and found it extremely interesting. The author provides very good insights into Abbey's life, his viewpoints and his writing style.
Reading this book has breathed new life into my interest in Abbey. Having read Dr. Cahalan's book has given me what I needed to now finish "The Fool's Progress" with a better understanding of the context in which the book was written. Also, as soon as I finished "Edward Abbey: a life" I bought "Desert Solitaire."
"Edward Abbey: a life" has given this casual (or maybe wannabe) Abbey fan the inspiration and understanding to become a true Abbey fan. In my opinion, this book is the perfect starting point for those fans wanting to explore the many facets of Edward Abbey's life, relationships and writing.
A biography that reads like a novel.......2004-09-30
Edward Abbey's life was so interesting that most any decently-written biography of him should be entertaining. Cahalan's biography is certainly that, but he also delves into Abbey's psyche through the presentation of details that are ignored in other biographies of Abbey. Thus, the reader is provided an image of Abbey that has a lot of "texture," and, I believe, is closer to a faithful picture of the real man, faults and virtues combined. Cahalan does a good job of remaining impartial, and tries to present the events just as they are, so that the reader is pretty much left free to make his/her own judgements about Abbey The Man. This doesn't mean that Cahalan's personal opinions about Abbey don't come out in the book (he is sympathetic to Abbey), but he lets the reader know when he is expressing an opinion, and when he is stating what is taken as fact.
Biographies of famous authors, especially revolutionary ones like Abbey, is a genre that I have started to really enjoy. It seems that, for me at least, reading about the events, and the author's reactions to them, that helped to form such an extraordinary individual is often more entertaining than the author's own writings! That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed most of Abbey's books (not all, though). The same goes for Jack Kerouac. Cahalan's biography and Ann Charter's biography of Kerouac are two fine examples of biographies that read like novels, but are in some ways better, because they report actual events!
Average customer rating:
- The Journey Home
- A good collection of essays to follow "Desert Solitaire"
- He had a great sense of adventure.
- Abbey for President - Ed come back we need you now!
- Arguably Abbey's best
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The Journey Home (Plume)
Edward Abbey
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ASIN: 0452265622 |
Amazon.com
"I am not a naturalist. I never was and never will be a naturalist." So Ed Abbey opens The Journey Home, a collection of essays that turns every page or two to some aspect of the natural history of the desert West. Abbey had recently been compared to Henry Thoreau as a writer who had made a home both literary and real in the wild, and he was having none of it: he wanted to be thought of as a novelist and environmental activist, not as the author of gentle essays on self-sufficiency and the turn of the seasons. The Journey Home is thus full of politically charged, often enraged essays on such matters as urban growth ("The Blob Comes to Arizona"), the gentrification of the small-town West ("Telluride Blues--A Hatchet Job"), and wilderness preservation ("Let Us Now Praise Mountain Lions"). He raised a few hackles with this book, but he also found many devoted readers, fans who wanted and got an update of and rejoinder to Abbey's Desert Solitaire. Agree with him or not, you can't fault Abbey for his honest self-assessment: "I am--really am--an extremist," he wrote, "one who lives and loves by choice far out on the very verge of things, on the edge of the abyss, where this world falls into the depths of the other. That's the way I like it." --Gregory McNamee
Customer Reviews:
The Journey Home.......2006-07-08
As usual Abbey was brilliant. It was one of the best novels I ever read.
A good collection of essays to follow "Desert Solitaire".......2005-09-30
When I sit down to write about Edward Abbey, I feel a pang of affection and sorrow, because through his writing I have really grown to like the guy. I wish I'd been able to meet him.
If you've read his works, I'll bet you know what I mean. He's the kind of guy you want to take camping with you. He's the first one you call when you get an itch to shoulder a pack and head out.
Even if you don't agree with everything he says (or how he says it)--and I know I don't--you just have to like him.
"The Journey Home" is Abbey at his most articulate, at his most candid. He takes on the issues of Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell, and the Navajo Generating Station, though much of his information on the Navajo Generating Station is now extremely out of date.
He examines everything from the desert to walking to why people bother doing anything, always with his trademark sense of bitter humor.
On walking he says, "The iron tug of gravitation should be all the reminder we need that in walking uphill we are violating a basic law of nature."
On reasons for climbing mountains he says, "George H. Leigh-Mallory's asinine rationale for climbing a mountain--"because it's there"--could easily be refuted with a few well-placed hydrogen bombs."
Edward Abbey is a classic, and these essays are some of his finest, and his most fun.
He had a great sense of adventure........2005-07-24
Much as others have already said Edward Abbey was a remarkable man. There is no doubt that Desert Solitaire stands out like a beacon in the desert of the usual literature, now called nature writing, available today. It is the shear life, zest and energy that permeates the work as it does here, although not all the time, in "The Journey Home". Abbey's stories this time are more personal and although still not at all self conscious they are deeper because of this. In this sense they are akin to the great work of Jack Turner, "The Abstract Wild" and Doug Peacock's "Grisly years". At no time do they suggest they are great writers, rather it is their spirit which wakes the reader with its realness. As yet I have only read these two books of his but each of them is different with its own seams to unwind, the first that of the younger man and the second that of the older. Its unfortunately rare to meet people like Abbey nowadays when much of the way the world is drives out this sense of adventure and joy in nature. This is not made easy by people's unfamiliarity with nature and even fear to tread outside their comfort zones, myself included. But if you want that kind of experience and living at the edge as Abbey knows well how to do then you have to jump off that cliff sometime.
Abbey for President - Ed come back we need you now!.......2002-02-06
Its been over ten years since I read Desert Solitaire and I've combed through a couple of his works looking for another collection of stories that hit me with the same "between-the-eyes" impact as Desert Solitaire. Well, I found it with Journey Home. To me Edward Abbey represents the second coming of John Westly Powell. He, like Major Powell, foresaw the westward expansion of the U.S. and in the case of the desert southwest instinctively knew that water would be the limiting factor. It's important to remember that Abbey saw the huge growth up tick coming some 25 years ago. And places like Phoenix, and Vegas have exploded in size ever since. Abbey puts it all in focus with "The BLOB Comes to Arizona." "Telluride Blues - A Hatchet Job" is another case in point. But for pure fun, nothing tops Abbey's "premarital honeymoon" adventure in "Disorder and Early Sorrow." If you're a fan of Abbey and you buy the book for that story alone, you won't be disappointed.
Arguably Abbey's best.......2000-10-27
That claim may seem a little rash in the face of Abbey's great prose work, Desert Solitaire, but this book in my view offers a more intimate and personal look at Abbey himself and provides some great insights into his formation as writing placed withi the context of the American west. One of the strengths of this work, as opposed to Desert Solitaire, is the broadness of subject matter covered. Abbey begins by recounting his life changing hitch-hiking, train jumping tour across america to the west in the summer of 1944. His style, however, is like Kerouac, but without the without the self consciousness and pretension. Through Abbey's it is nature that is the subject, his personal exploits are merely secondary/accidental; Abbey is just along for the ride. He tells of his first glimpse of the mesa's of Hopi country on the fringes of the Painted Desert as viewed from the side door of the Pullman as he drifted down the tracks towards New Mexico. Throughout, he describes his love of the desert and the creatures that live there with a vitality and gentleness uncommon in today's environmental discourse. This sensitivity is even more pronounced when compared with his verbal protests against what he sees as the destroyers of his desert paradise, such as, the miners, developers, dammers, trappers and, yes, even the tourists. "The Journey Home" closes with a surrealistic celebration of the desert as seen through the detached lens of an anonymous camera, which I consider some of his most beautiful and original writing. For all those who have read Desert Solitaire, read this to get a more intimate look of the man behind the ideas. Abbey's contradictions are what makes him so great as an American writer. He is at once an anarchist, environmentalist, desert rat, river-runner, essayist and novelist, but above all a man from pennsylvania who became entraptured by the mysteries of the desert and dedicated his life to celebrating its beauty.
Book Description
Where do our journeys take us?
What do we leave behind?
What do we carry with us?
How do we find our way?
You are invited to consider a more graceful way of traveling through life. With arresting clarity, Journeys of Simplicity offers vignettes of forty travelers and the few, ordinary things they carried with them--from place to place, from day to day, from birth to death.
Edward Abbey, Nellie Bly, Raymond Carver, Dorothy Day, Marcel Duchamp, Dolores Garcia, Emma "Grandma" Gatewood, Mohandas Gandhi, Peter Matthiessen, William Least Heat Moon, John Muir, Robert Pirsig, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, Henry David Thoreau, Father Zossima, and others.
Customer Reviews:
The Dream of Simplicity.......2006-05-30
Most of us are in risk of being overwhelmed by our pursuit of "stuff." Let's just take babies as an example. It appears that strollers for toddlers must now cover almost half an acre and contain sufficient storage for any possible medical or hygienic emergency. Young married couples feel the necessity to immediately buy a huge van that is effective only at cutting off the view of the hapless motorists behind you. Houses must be larger to contain the "stuff" we buy for our children. Why? Because if we don't, it means we don't love them, I suppose.
I must not have been loved very much. My father was a poor factory worker who drove a 1949 Mercury coupé. During all my childhood, I remember only a handful of toys: a set of white plastic blocks that were similar to the Legos that came later, various toy soldiers, a small Lionel O-Gauge electric train set, a stamp collection, a cowboy cap pistol, and a Civil War hat (Union Army type). That hat I wore with a blue cub scout shirt with captain's bars sown on that made me look like the boy Dusty on the old Rin Tin Tin show that I loved to watch.
Over the years, I seem to have gone astray somewhat. My apartment has well over 6,000 books in it. However much I resolve to cut down, I always find myself intrigued by another title that I must read. If I were to sit down and read all the books I own, I would have to live for hundreds of years more.
This slim volume was one of my recent purchases. I sat down to read it almost at once and fell in love with it. JOURNEYS OF SIMPLICITY is a book of lists of stuff with which selected real and fictional people traveled through their lives.
Some of the lists, such as the personal effects of Thomas Merton when he was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room after being electrocuted by his room fan, were heart-wrenching. In almost every case, they set off a little flash bulb of enlightenment. Each list was a window into a person's life (even if that "person" were Bilbo Baggins or Dostoyevsky's Father Zossima from THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV).
If ever I became a truly enlightened person? What would be on my list. Let me guess: a box of loose black Indian tea, a pot to boil water, a few (far less than 6,000) good books, a sweater, a jacket, two or three changes of clothing including wool socks, stout walking shoes, reading glasses, a hat -- and that's about it.
Oh yes, and one other thing -- a sense of wonder.
It's Hard To Travel Lighter Than This.......2003-03-03
The small book devotes two pages each to about three dozen authors, spiritual seekers and fictional characters. One page briefly describes the person and something about their life and philosophy; the second provides a supposedly complete list of the small number of items each person lived with or took on a trip. It's thought provoking as to how much - or how little - stuff we really need to live a good life. At the same time it's a VERY brief book that can be read in about 30 minutes. Because there is a bibliography listing one or more sources for or about each person this book might best be considered an introduction/reference for those wanting to study the philosophy of simplicity. It's also a good inspirational gift for someone who wants to simplify their life. Too bad publishers don't provide little books like this for a more reasonable price.
Amazon.com
In his passionate defense of wilderness and wild-ness, Edward Abbey is always worth reading for those who value a wolf's howl more than the ka-chink! of a cash register, and no matter what the subject, Cactus Ed always shoots from the hip. This collection of essays is no different, and contains the invaluable "A Writer's Credo," wherein Abbey tells would-be scribes to rock the boat and make a stand, else the noble craft is reduced to a mess of pottage, and the muse has no reason for staying.
Book Description
From stories about cattlemen, fellow critics, his beloved desert, cities, and technocrats to thoughts on sin and redemption, this is one of our most treasured writers at the height of his powers.
Customer Reviews:
Hit and miss collection of Abbey essays.......2006-06-15
Edward Abbey's curmudgeonly persona permeates this collection of essays organized by topic (politics, travel, books and art and nature love). This is one of Abbey's later books, a mish-mash of essays, magazine articles and book prefaces, and it has a disjointed feel.
When Abbey describes a journey, like his description of a houseboat trip on Lake Powell, he is magical. When he decides to be political or critical, when the desert rat Abbey comes to fore, he just comes off as too ranting, too artful, trying to hard to be clever and angry at the same time. This is always Abbey, or, I could argue, any artist, at their worst -- when they become so self conscious of their persona that they have to pander to it to maintain the illusion of it. That's at least how Abbey comes off to me in the rantings in this book.
His article about a trip to San Francisco shines when it describes his visit to Robinson Jeffers house, but could do without the pithy descriptions of his daughter and meeting with the magazine editor.
Read "One Life..." one story at a time. If you don't like one, skip it and move on. There are enough pleasing nuggets to satisfy both avid fan and neophyte alike.
Abbey reveals some weakness in his character and writings.......2000-10-01
I had great expectations after reading the first essay: Free Speech. I feel like the book went downhill from there. Abbey seems particularly fond of wandering off by himself, but frankly, when he's part of a white-water rafting excursion, I have serious doubts that they would even let him do that. I'm certain now that he's taking considerable "artistic license" in some of these essays. For me the low point was "Writer's Credo". I felt a strong level of insincerity in this piece - How can a writer feel it's his duty to criticize everyone around him without first subjecting himself to the same standards. Frankly, at best, "Credo" is just a justification for Abbey's misanthropic tendencies. At worst, it's a lie.
"Krutch" was just plain boring. "Sex" was somewhat redeeming.
I'm not sure what to say about "Sportsmen" - which as Abbey puts it, is simply excerpts from a printed leaflet. It sure was scary. The question is, with the questions raised about Abbey's honesty of description, and sincerity of purpose, how factual is this piece titled "Sportsmen"? I don't want to believe it, and Abbey spent the whole rest of the book crying wolf. I don't know.
I absolutely love some of Abbey's books. We all love "Desert Solitaire", and the charicatures of "The Monkey Wrench Gang", etc., are wonderful. But this patchwork of rehashed essays seems just like a cheap way to make some extra cash. In summary, a careful read of this bookwill likely expand your image of this writer, but leave you with questions about his veracity. I guess the next book for me will have to be "Confessions". Don't make this your first foray into Abbey's world. You're likely to miss the best.
Abbey's best non-fiction after Desert Solitaire.......1998-11-25
Of all Abbey's non-fiction titles, I liked One Life at A Time best after Desert Solitaire. It's vintage Abbey at his best. You may not agree with his political views in this book of essays. But you'll find his arguments compelling and logical. "Immigration And Other Liberal Taboos" is a classic. So is "The Future of Sex" in which he asks the question, "What is femininity?" Gloria Steinham be damned.
Good, but not his best.......1998-09-14
Let me say one thing right up front: Ed Abbey is my favorite author. From the lyrical imagery of "Beyond the Wall" to the alternating landscapes and polemics of "Desert Solitaire" to the introspective fiction of "The Black Sun," Abbey at his best was like no other author. That said, "One Life at a Time, Please" is not my favorite Abbey book. Always a mercurial writer, ("when he was good, he was very, very good, but when he was bad he was awful"), this is a very uneven book. Since it is a collection of essays originally written as lectures, magazine articles, and book forewards, you'd expect a certain amount of variability, but "One Life at a Time, Please" has more highs and lows than a Canyonlands relief map.
Some of the essays are very good--"A Writer's Credo" and "The Future of Sex," for example. Others, like "River of No Return," illustrate his trademark power to breathe extraordinary life into otherwise ordinary adventures. My main complaint is with the collection of essays in the section titled "Politics." In "A Writer's Credo," Abbey eloquently argues that it is the writer's responsibility to be a critic of the society in which he lives, so as to foster positive change in that society. But he seems to forget that to be effective, the writer must also persuade. The vitriolic essays in "Politics" may please existing ecodefenders but are more likely to alienate those important readers who are still undecided. If the result causes people to turn away from environmentalism rather than embrace it, they do more harm than good. Abbey himself seemed to recognize the danger of his ways in the excellent essay, "Mr Krutch."
Would I recommend the book? Absolutely yes. Those already familiar with Abbey will find it an enlightening insight into the enigmatic old misanthrope's personality. New readers will discover an often eloquent leader in 20th century environmentalism. One caution, though. If you've never read Abbey before, save the section titled "Politics" until the end. That way you'll be less likely to fling the book across the room into a roaring fireplace, or if you do, you'll at least have gotten more of your money's worth.
An appetizer to the seven course meal that is Edward Abbey!.......1997-02-12
This book of essays gives the reader new to Abbey a brief but coherent representation of his cannon. Among favorites in the book are "Theory of Anarchy" where he outlines a lifestyle and society where the individual is priority; "Lake Powell Houseboat" where Abbey uses the pastoral wonder of the Colorado River to reflect on personal experience; and finally the flag ship essay of the entire collection: "A Writer's Credo." Here Abbey outlines the true purpose of the freelance writer "to oppose injustice, to defy power, and to speak out for the voiceless." All Abbey followers should own this book and all who are interested should buy one
Book Description
Through Abbey's own writings and personal papers, as well as interviews with friends and acquaintances, Bishop gives us a penetrating, compelling, no-holds-barred view of tile life and accomplishments of this controversial figure.
Customer Reviews:
Thank you for playing, please try again later.......2002-11-03
I am sorry that the money was spent to give this book to me as a gift. It is not well researched and not well written. If you have bought everything that Abbey wrote, read it all, bought everything else, read them all, gone back and read at least Desert Solitare and Down the River again, then have to be able to say "I've read everything by and about Abbey"; well then you might, but only might, consider this book. Even then try to borrow it. In fact, I'll send you mine if I haven't tossed it. I have been an Abbey fan for years, not always agreeing but always admiring the point of view. This book was truely not worth my time, I am somewhat amazed that three other people thought it was. Oh well, just as you can say this about me I'll say it about them, there's no accounting for taste.
Epitaph to a Great Writer.......2001-04-06
What a wonderful book! Reading it was like sitting with the author and talking about Ed Abbey over a couple of beers. Bishop's style is so smooth and relaxing. He could give a lesson to all current biographers: we don't need to know everytime the subject had tea with someone or tied his tie over the course of 800 pages! It was just the right mix of disscussion of his life and his books. The last chapter, "Farewell..." was very moving. Edward Abbey was a man I would have loved to have known personally because he was so interesting and caustic, and especially because I don't always agree with him, which makes an interesting mix. I have read 2 novels and 1 book of essays of Abbey's and look forward to reading everything else he has written. A real nice job by the author.
Another treasure of the Southwest is found ... J. Bishop!.......1999-08-26
James P. Bishop, Jr. has created a vivid and real picture of a great man who was as human as the rest of us. I most enjoyed how Abbey's contrariness has been captured. After reading this book, not only do I feel I've come to know of Abbey in some small way, it has given me a greater appreciation for the American Southwest and the need to speak out against government intervention. Written with frank truth and compassion ... a rare combination.
A superb, well-researched analysis of Edward Abbey........1999-07-13
"We shook hands once, but I never knew him personally, and I have mixed feelings about that. I would have liked to argue with him over cheap cigars and good tequila by a blazing river campfire under a sky full of stars. But then, this would have been a different book, more of a personal memoir." James Bishop, Jr. Despite misgivings of not knowing Edward Abbey personally, Bishop has written a superb book on the legend of desert anarchist Cactus Ed. It is a well-researched, no-holds-barred, truthful expose of the mind, musings and legacy of an outrageous, outspoken man who was devoted to preserving the American Southwest wilderness for himself and a select few who would truly understand, preserve and love it unequivocally. Bishop, a polished and professional writer of many years with Newsweek, leaves no saguaro thorn or blossom untouched in his thorough and objective rendering of the subjects life, personality, writings and still living legacy. Often labeled the "Thoreau of the American West," the talented and tenacious Abbey was the promoter of ecodefense and ecosabotage; advocating anarchy to prevent the government and tourist industry from ruining the wilderness. In his twenty-one published books, the most popular being "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and "Desert Solitaire", Abbey shows to have been a determined, cantankerous, frustrated and angry, yet unique and colorful persona. Many detested him; especially those who were to receive financial gain from developing, paving or civilizing the west for tourism or the development of power plants at the cost of damning nature, pun intended. Abbey, certainly a master wordsmith as well, expounds a continuous theme: a surly hatred of progress and dogmatic devotion to wilderness preservation. If the admirable and perplexing Abbey could be summed up in one word, it would have to be curmudgeon; applying his wrath and logic at will depending upon mood and provocation, yet one with a delight of stirring motions within others and then impishly standing back to watch the results. Abbey's theme and writing niche was discovered early in life; the constant rebellion to progress, pomp and formality were seemingly intentional. Despite his denial and distaste for finances, both theme and writing paid well. "Love of wilderness" Abbey wrote in Desert Solitaire, "is an expression of loyalty to the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we will ever know, the only paradise we ever need --- if we only have eyes to see." In his constant struggle to protect the environment from the government, developers and ourselves, Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang implies his fictional delight in openly seeking to enrage others to the point of "monkey wrenching" the governments Glen Canyon Dam Project by damaging equipment or floating dynamite-filled boats to the dam while the ribbon cutting ceremony was taking place. As long as no one got hurt and he, admittedly the one who didn't have the courage to pull the plug or press the handle setting off the dynamite, it was fine with him. So open was Abbey in his determination of stopping progress that the FBI had agents assigned to watch and report on him for most of his adult life. Alas, the struggle of Abbey and his devotees to prevent what many called necessary "growth and progress" was as futile as those who in present day blame Columbus for the genocide of native Americans and eventual take over of two entire continents by Europeans and others. It was and is, inevitable. If Columbus didn't do it, someone else would have. The environs of Abbey's Southeast Utah stomping grounds of the 1950s, resembles little of what it is today, and, regretfully, nothing of what "growth and progress" will deem its state and existence a hundred years from now. We come, we see and, for environments demise, we conquer. Anyone interested in understanding more of Edward Abbey, need only read Desert Solitaire, written in 1968 from essays he wrote in the mid-50s while working as an isolated National Parks employee in Arches National Monument near Moab, Utah. "This is the most beautiful place on earth." Abbey wrote, yet he ended his employment there after two seasons due to the monument becoming "developed and improved so well that I had to leave." The reader seeking complete insight of the unique and complex Edward Abbey should read Epitaph of a Desert Anarchist. "Any writer who is dead and still raises hackles must have done his work properly," eulogized fellow writer and friend Chuck Bowden. Abbey and Bishop have both done their work well.
Customer Reviews:
Uplifting story based on fact.......2006-03-28
This book is one of the few uplifting stories based on reality and not fiction. It's the story of a tag-along onboard Paul Watson's sea vessel. Paul Watson is a modern-day pirate who patrols international waters and interferes with/or shuts down illegal fishing and hunting. The concept is interesting by itself, but this book puts that idea into a real world situtation involving confrontations in the middle of the ocean where there are no laws. Watson is an inspiration for our generation... who else do you know that attacks Japanese whaling ships?
Some of the story-telling by the author is sub-par, but the content definitely keeps you going. Definitely recommend.
Average customer rating:
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The Great Chain of Life
Joseph Wood Krutch
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0395259436 |
Customer Reviews:
most meaningful.......2007-01-04
To have a sense of all that is in nature and the sense of balance, for a full and intelligent appreciation of the natural world, in a single readable volume - this is the book. A great book. I have read this twice in 20 years and expect to read it again, for perspective, and to still learn.
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