Edward Abbey Popular Books
Edward Abbey Biography & Facts
Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental groups, and the non-fiction work Desert Solitaire. Early life and education Abbey was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania on January 29, 1927 to Mildred Postlewait and Paul Revere Abbey. Mildred was a schoolteacher and a church organist, and gave Abbey an appreciation for classical music and literature. Paul was a socialist, anarchist, and atheist whose views strongly influenced Abbey.Abbey graduated from high school in Indiana, Pennsylvania, in 1945. Eight months before his 18th birthday, when he would be faced with being conscripted into the U.S. military, Abbey decided to explore the American southwest. He traveled by foot, bus, hitchhiking, and freight train hopping. During this trip he fell in love with the desert country of the Four Corners region. Abbey wrote: "[...]crags and pinnacles of naked rock, the dark cores of ancient volcanoes, a vast and silent emptiness smoldering with heat, color, and indecipherable significance, above which floated a small number of pure, clear, hard-edged clouds. For the first time, I felt I was getting close to the West of my deepest imaginings, the place where the tangible and the mythical became the same."In the U.S. Army, Abbey had applied for a clerk typist position but instead he served two years as a military police officer in Italy. Abbey was promoted in the army twice but due to his knack for opposing authority, was twice demoted and was honorably discharged as a private. His experience in the military left him with a distrust for large institutions and regulations which influenced his writing throughout his career and strengthened his anarchist beliefs.When he returned to the United States, Abbey took advantage of the G.I. Bill to attend the University of New Mexico, where he received a B.A. in philosophy and English in 1951, and a master's degree in philosophy in 1956. During his time in college, Abbey supported himself by working at a variety of odd jobs, including being a newspaper reporter and bartending in Taos, New Mexico. During this time he had few male friends but had intimate relationships with a number of women. Shortly before getting his bachelor's degree, Abbey married his first wife, Jean Schmechal (another UNM student). While an undergraduate, Abbey was the editor of a student newspaper in which he published an article titled "Some Implications of Anarchy". A cover quotation of the article, "ironically attributed to Louisa May Alcott" stated "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." University officials seized all of the copies of the issue, and removed Abbey from the editorship of the paper.Upon receiving his honorable discharge papers, he sent it back to the department with the words "Return to Sender". The FBI took note and added a note to his file which was opened in 1947 when Edward Abbey committed an act of civil disobedience; he posted a letter while in college urging people to rid themselves of their draft cards. Abbey was on the FBI’s watch-list ever since then and was watched throughout his life. In 1952 Abbey wrote a letter against the draft in times of peace and again the FBI took notice writing, "Edward Abbey is against war and military." Throughout his life the FBI took notes building a profile on Abbey, observing his movements and interviewing many people who knew him. Towards the later parts of his life Abbey learned of the FBI’s interest in him and said "I’d be insulted if they weren’t watching me".After graduating, Schmechal and Abbey traveled together to Edinburgh, Scotland, where Abbey spent a year at Edinburgh University as a Fulbright scholar. During this time, Abbey and Schmechal separated and ended their marriage. In 1951 Abbey began having an affair with Rita Deanin, who in 1952 would become his second wife after he and Schmechal divorced. Deanin and Abbey had two children, Joshua N. Abbey and Aaron Paul Abbey.Abbey's master's thesis explored anarchism and the morality of violence, asking the two questions: "To what extent is the current association between anarchism and violence warranted?" and "In so far as the association is a valid one, what arguments have the anarchists presented, explicitly or implicitly, to justify the use of violence?". After receiving his master's degree, Abbey spent 1957 at Stanford University on a Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellowship. Work for National Park Service In 1956 and 1957, Abbey worked as a seasonal ranger for the United States National Park Service at Arches National Monument (now a national park), near the town of Moab, Utah. Abbey held the position from April to September each year, during which time he maintained trails, greeted visitors, and collected campground fees. He lived in a house trailer that had been provided to him by the Park Service, as well as in a ramada that he built himself. During his stay at Arches, Abbey accumulated a large volume of notes and sketches which later formed the basis of his first non-fiction work, Desert Solitaire. Abbey's second son Aaron was born in 1959, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.In the 1960s Abbey worked as a seasonal park ranger at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, on the border of Arizona and Mexico. In 1961, the movie version of his second novel, The Brave Cowboy, with screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, was being shot on location in New Mexico by Kirk Douglas who had purchased the novel's screen rights and was producing and starring in the film, released in 1962 as Lonely Are the Brave. Douglas once said that when Abbey visited the film set, he looked and talked so much like friend Gary Cooper that Douglas was disconcerted. However, over 25 years later when Abbey died, Douglas wrote that he had 'never met' him. In 1981, his third novel, Fire on the Mountain, was also adapted into a TV movie by the same title.On October 16, 1965 Abbey married Judy Pepper, who accompanied Abbey as a seasonal park ranger in the Florida Everglades, and then as a fire lookout in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Judy was separated from Abbey for extended periods of time while she attended the University of Arizona to get her master's degree. During this time, Abbey slept with other women—something that Judy gradually became aware of, causing their marriage to suffer. On August 8, 1968 Pepper gave birth to a daughter, Susannah "Susie" Mildred Abbey. Ed purchased the family a home in Sabino Canyon, outside of Tucson. Judy died of leukemia on July 11, 1970, an event that crushed Abbey, causing him to go into "bouts of depression and loneliness" for years. It was to Judy that he dedicated his book Black Sun. However, the book was not an autobiogra.... Discover the Edward Abbey popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Edward Abbey books.
Best Seller Edward Abbey Books of 2024
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White Mountain
Robert TwiggerHome to mythical kingdoms, wars and expeditions, and strange and magical beasts, the Himalayas have always loomed tall in our imagination. These mountains, home to Buddhists, Bonpo...
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The Duff Cooper Diaries
John Julius NorwichThe long awaited and highly revealing diaries of the politician, diplomat, and socialite (married to Lady Diana Cooper)'This is a fabulous, jawdropping read' SUNDAY TIMES'Duff Coop...
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Beyond the Wall
Edward AbbeyIn this wise and lyrical book about landscapes of the desert and the mind, Edward Abbey guides us beyond the wall of the city and asphalt belting of superhighways to special pocket...
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Earth Apples
Edward AbbeyPoems about love and landscapes by the author of the classic Desert Solitaire, an “environmentalist, nature writer, novelist and allaround iconoclast” (The New York Times). ...
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A Friend of the Earth
T.C. BoyleOne of LitHub’s "365 Books to Start Your Climate Change Library"“Fiction about ecological disaster tends to be written in a tragic key. Boyle, by contrast, favors the darkly comic....
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Natural Rivals
John ClaytonJohn Muir and Gifford Pinchot have often been seen as the embodiment of conflicting environmental philosophies. Muir, the preservationist and cofounder of the Sierra Club. Pinchot,...
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The Palace
Gareth RussellThe popular and “scrupulous historian” (Daily Mail, London) Gareth Russell presents five hundred years of British historyfrom King Henry VIII to Queen Elizabeth IIas seen through t...
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This Land
Christopher Ketcham“A big, bold book about public lands . . . The Desert Solitaire of our time.” Outside A hardhitting look at the battle now raging over the fate of the public lands i...
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Finding Abbey
Sean PrentissWhen the great environmental writer Edward Abbey died in 1989, four of his friends buried him secretly in a hidden desert spot that no one would ever find. The final resting place ...
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Ravenspur
Conn IgguldenEngland, 1470. A divided kingdom cannot stand. King Edward of York has been driven out of England. Queen Elizabeth and her children tremble in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. The H...
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Edward Abbey
James M. Cahalan“The best biography ever about Ed. Cahalan’s meticulous research and thoughtful interviews have made this book the authoritative source for Abbey scholars and fans alike.” Doug Pea...
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The Stranger in the Woods
Michael FinkelNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years, making this dream a realitynot out of anger at the world, but simp...
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Abdication
Juliet Nicolson“Goodness, Abdication really is good. I’m in awe of Juliet’s ability” (Jessica Fellowes, New York Times bestselling author of The World of Downton Abbey).England, 1936. A beloved k...
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Behind the Throne
Adrian TinniswoodAn "enchanting" upstairs/downstairs history of the British royal court, from the Middle Ages to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (Wall Street Journal). Monarchs: they're just like u...
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The Pot Thief Who Studied Edward Abbey
J. Michael OrenduffThe pot thief is going back to school, but someone on campus is trying for a different kind of degreemurder in the firstin this “smartly funny series” (Anne Hillerman). Befo...
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The Shadow Sister
Lucinda Riley“Riley’s engaging and mesmerizing story of selfdiscovery and love...can be perfectly read as a standalone. This book will appeal to readers of Edwardian novels and Jane Austenstyle...
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Edward Abbey Bestsellers
Edward AbbeyThree wild and suspenseful novels about standing your ground against the forces of destruction by the author of Desert Solitaire. From the beloved author and passionate advo...
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The Red Caddy
Charles BowdenThe author of Blood Orchid and Blue Desert presents a biography on his friend, the writer and environmentalist, Edward Abbey.A passionate advocate for preserving wilderness and fig...
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Epitaph For A Desert Anarchist
James BishopThrough Abbey's own writings and personal papers, as well as interviews with friends and acquaintances, Bishop gives us a penetrating, compelling, noholdsbarred view of tile life a...
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Unsolaced
Gretel EhrlichFrom the author of the enduring classic The Solace of Open Spaces, here is a wondrous meditation on how water, light, wind, mountain, bird, and horse have shaped her life and her u...
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The Best of Edward Abbey
Edward AbbeyA mix of fiction and essays by the author described as “the Thoreau of the American West” (Larry McMurtry, The Washington Post). Edward Abbey himself compiled this volume re...
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The Ship of Dreams
Gareth RussellThis original and “meticulously researched retelling of history’s most infamous voyage” (Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author) uses the sinking of the Titanic as a pri...
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Journeys of Simplicity
Philip HarndenWhere 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 ...
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The Best of Edward Abbey
Edward AbbeyA mix of fiction and essays by the author described as “the Thoreau of the American West” (Larry McMurtry, The Washington Post). Edward Abbey himself compiled this volume re...
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Before the Crown
Flora HardingBefore the crown there was a love story…‘If you’re a fan of The Crown, you’ll love this’ Woman’s Weekly‘Fascinating…a beautiful love story’ WomanWindsor Castle, 1943As war rages ac...
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Coronation
Roy StrongThe definitive history of coronations and the Royal Family, from acclaimed writer Roy Strong.’What is the finest sight in the world? A Coronation.What do people talk most about? A ...
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Confessions of a Barbarian
Edward Abbey & David PetersonThese eloquent meditations, philosophical musings, and whimsical doodles offer us the clearest window into the soul of this American literary legend.Few have cared more about Ameri...
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The Great Crown Jewels Robbery of 1303
Paul DohertyAn insight into one of history's most cunning, yet overlooked, events...Medieval London comes to life in Paul Doherty's gripping retelling of this early attempt to steal the Crown ...
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Wrenched from the Land
ML Lincoln & Diane Sward RapaportWrenched from the Land features sixteen interviews with some of the most iconic ecowarriors to put themselves on the line for their beliefs. The activists featured in this book are...
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The Red Caddy
Charles BowdenThe author of Blood Orchid and Blue Desert presents a biography on his friend, the writer and environmentalist, Edward Abbey.A passionate advocate for preserving wilderness and fig...
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Hole in the Sky
William KittredgeWilliam Kittredge's stunning memoir is at once autobiography, a family chronicle, and a Westerner's settling of accounts with the land he grew up in. This is the story of a grandfa...