Desert Solitaire (1968)
Run,
don't walk, to the bookstore or library and get this book. This
is by far his best, and one of the best books I've ever read.
This is also a fairly well-integrated whole -- most of his later
non-fiction books are collections of essays and magazine
articles. It has changed people's lives.
To get a flavor of this wonderful book, read this excerpt published in The Arid Lands Newsletter No. 35.
Cover text
Edward Abbey's account of two summers spent in southeastern Utah's canyonlands is one of the most enduring works of contemporary American nature writing. In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Desert Solitaire, the University of Arizona Press is pleased to make the book available once again in a hardcover edition, featuring a new introduction by the author, his definitive corrections to the text, and eighteen illustrations commissioned exclusively for this volume.
"I confess to being a nature lover," admits Abbey more than thirty years after his sojourn in the wilderness. "But I did not mean to be mistaken for a nature writer. I never wanted to be anything but a writer, period." First published in 1968 to "a few brief but not hostile notices," Desert Solitaire quietly sold out of its first printing and eventually developed a loyal following in paperback.
Desert Solitaire lives on because it is a work that reflects profound love of nature and a bitter abhorrence of all that would desecrate it. "Abbey is one of our very best writers about wilderness country," observed Wallace Stegner in the Los Angeles Times Book Review; "he is also a gadfly with a stinger like a scorpion." "This book may well seem like a ride on a bucking bronco," added Edwin May Teale in the New York Times. "It is rough, tough, combative ... passionately felt, deeply poetic." But perhaps the spirit of the man, the work, and the circumstances of its writing were best summarized by Larry McMurtry in his review for the Washington Post: "Edward Abbey is the Thoreau of the American West."
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Library of Congress Data
Abbey, Edward, 1927- Desert solitaire; a season in the wilderness. Drawings by Peter Parnall. [1st ed.] New York, McGraw-Hill [1968] xiv, 269 p. illus. 22 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: PS3551.B2 Z5 SUBJECTS: Abbey, Edward, 1927- --Biography. Authors, American--20th century--Biography. Park rangers--United States--Biography. Desert biology--Utah--Arches National Park. Arches National Park (Utah) DEWEY DEC: 818/.5/403 LCCN: 67-26166 r892
Abbey, Edward, 1927- Desert solitaire : a season in the wilderness / by Edward Abbey ; drawings by Peter Parnall. 1st Touchstone ed. New York : Simon & Schuster, 1990. xiv, 269 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: PS3551.B2 Z463 1990 SUBJECTS: Abbey, Edward, 1927- --Biography. Authors, American--20th century--Biography. Park rangers--United States--Biography. Desert biology--Utah--Arches National Park. Arches National Park (Utah) DEWEY DEC: 813/.54 B dc20 NOTES: "... Desert solitaire was first published in 1968"--P. [4] of cover. "A Touchstone book." ISBN: 0671695886 : $9.95 GEOG. AREA CODE: n-us--- n-us-ut LCCN: 89-21764
Abbey, Edward, 1927- Desert solitaire / Edward Abbey. Tucson : University of Arizona Press, c1988. 255 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: PS3551.B2 Z463 1988 SUBJECTS: Abbey, Edward, 1927- --Biography. Authors, American--20th century--Biography. Park rangers--United States--Biography. Desert biology--Utah--Arches National Park. Arches National Park (Utah) DEWEY DEC: 813/.54 B dc19 ISBN: 0816510571 GEOG. AREA CODE: n-us-ut LCCN: 87-36546
Abbey, Edward, 1927- Desert solitaire : a season in the wilderness / by Edward Abbey ; drawings by Edward Abbey ; photos. by Gibbs Smith. Salt Lake City : Peregrine Smith, 1981. xvi, 269 p., [4] leaves of plates : ill. ; 23 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: QH105.U8 A22 1981 *NOT IN LC COLLECTION* SUBJECTS: Abbey, Edward, 1927- Desert biology--Utah--Arches National Park. Park rangers--United States--Biography. Arches National Park (Utah) DEWEY DEC: 917.92/59 dc19 NOTES: Reprint of the 1st ed. (1968) published by McGraw-Hill, New York. ISBN: 0879050705 : $12.50 GEOG. AREA CODE: n-us-ut LCCN: 80-28961 r82
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