Edward Abbey (January 29, 1927 - March 14, 1989) was a respected American author and essayist noted for his strong criticism of public lands policies and other environmental issues.

Abbey was born in the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania and grew up in nearby Home, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1944 he headed west, and fell in love with the desert country of the Four Corners region. He wrote, "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." He studied at the University of New Mexico and the University of Edinburgh. In the late 1950s Abbey worked as a seasonal ranger for the United States Park Service at Arches National Monument (now a national park), near the town of Moab, Utah, which was not then known for extreme sports but for its desolation and uranium mines. It was there that he penned the journals that would become one of his most famous works, 1968's Desert Solitaire, which Abbey described "...not [as] a travel guide, but an elegy."

Desert Solitaire is regarded by many as one of the finest nature narratives in American literature. In it, Abbey vividly describes the physical landscape around him, delights in his isolation as a backcountry park ranger, and recounts adventures in the nearby canyon country and mountains. He also attacks what he terms the "industrial tourism" and resulting development in the national parks, rails against the Glen Canyon Dam, and comments on various other subjects.

Abbey's abrasiveness and outspoken writings made him the object of much controversy. Conventional environmentalists from mainstream groups disliked his "Keep America Beautiful...Burn a Billboard" style. Based on his writings and statements (and apparently in a few cases, actions), many believe that Abbey did advocate sabotage. The controversy intensified with the publication of Abbey's most famous work of fiction, The Monkey Wrench Gang. The novel centers around a small group of individuals who plot to blow up the Glen Canyon Dam, built in 1962 to impound the waters of the Colorado River. Abbey claimed the novel was written merely to "entertain and amuse," and was intended as symbolic satire. Others saw it as a how-to guide to property destruction (the main characters do not attack people). The novel soon inspired environmentalists frustrated with conventional methods of activism. Earth First! was formed as a result in 1981, advocating eco-sabotage or "monkeywrenching." Abbey never joined the group but became friends with many of its members, and occasionally wrote for the organization.

Sometimes called the "desert anarchist," Abbey was known to anger people of all political stripes (as well as environmentalists) and could be contradictory. He admitted to throwing beer cans out of his car, claiming the highway had already littered the landscape, and was criticized by some for his comments on immigration and women. It was controversy on which Abbey thrived, however, and the honesty, wit, and skill of his writing have won him many fans.

Abbey died in 1989 at the age of 62 at his home near Tucson, Arizona.

Bibliography

Fiction:

• Jonathan Troy (1954)
• The Brave Cowboy (1956)
• Fire on the Mountain (1962)
• Black Sun (1971)
• The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)
• Good News (1980)
• The Fool's Progress (1988)
• Hayduke Lives (1989)

• Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness (1968)
• Appalachian Wilderness (1970)
• Slickrock (1971)
• Cactus Country (1973)
• The Journey Home (1977)
• The Hidden Canyon (1977)
• Abbey's Road (1979)
• Desert Images (1979)
• Down the River (with Henry Thoreau & Other Friends) (1982)
• In Praise of Mountain Lions (1984)
• Beyond the Wall (1984)
• One Life at a Time, Please (1988)
• A Voice Crying in the Wilderness: Notes from a Secret Journal (1989)
• Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey, 1951-1989 (1994)

• The Best of Edward Abbey (1984)
• The Serpents of Paradise: A Reader (1995)