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Definition: Abbey, Edward from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

US author and conservationist. His novels include The Monkey Wrench Gang (1976), about a gang of ecological saboteurs. This was a best-seller, making Abbey a cult hero.

Although Abbey disapproved of ecological extremists, his writings and public statements were characteristically quirky.He published his first book, Jonathan Troy, in 1954. In Desert Solitaire (1968) – an account of his years as a part-time ranger in the Arches National Monument, Utah – he called for a ban on motor vehicles in wilderness preserves.


Abbey, Edward (1927-1989)

From Encyclopedia of the Environment in American Literature
Author of 25 books of fiction and non-fiction mostly about the desert Southwest, Edward Abbey is best known as the author of DESERT SOLITAIRE (1968) , alternately compared to WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau and A Sand County Almanac by ALDO LEOPOLD . Abbey saw his second book The Brave Cowboy (1956) made into a movie in which he played a bit part as a Sheriff's deputy, and earned both fame and infamy as the author of THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG (1975) . Edward Abbey was born to Paul and Mildred Abbey in Indiana, Pennsylvania, but grew up on what Abbey called a “sub-marginal farm” in Home, Pennsylvania. He first encountered the Southwest hitchhiking from coast to coast before being drafted into the Army near the end of World War II. Spared combat, he served in post-war Italy and patrolled the streets on a motorcycle named “Crash.” After returning to the United States, he intermittently studied at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and eventually earned a Master's degree in…
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Full text Article Abbey, Edward

From Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature
Called “the Thoreau of the West,” A. is the preeminent natural history writer of the Southwestern deserts. His twenty-three novels, essay collections, travel books, and journal extracts constantly reiterate a poetics of wilderness, one in which undeveloped land is America's best and most sacred…
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Full text Article Abbey, Edward

From Encyclopedia of American Literature Full text Article Volume 4
(b. 1927–d. 1989) American novelist, essayist Edward Abbey was born and raised in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania and was educated at the University of New Mexico. Primarily a nature writer—he preferred to be called a writer of “personal histories”—he employed wit in his response to the…
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Full text Article Abbey, Edward

From American Environmental Leaders
Abbey spent time as a park ranger at what became...
(January 29, 1927–March 14, 1989) Writer Edward Abbey, wild man of the American West and the author of 22 books, defies literary definitions. He is known for his exquisite descriptions of his beloved Southwestern desert, for his bitter diatribes against those who defile such pristine areas…
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Full text Article Abbey, Edward

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born Jan. 29, 1927, Indiana, Pa., U.S.—died March 14, 1989, near Tucson, Ariz.) U.S. writer and environmentalist. Abbey worked as a park ranger and fire lookout for the National Park Service. He wrote a number of volumes on consumer culture’s encroachment on the American wilderness. Desert…
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Full text Article Abbey, Edward

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
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The more radical environmental groups, inspired by Thoreau and borrowing their tactics from the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protesters, engaged in civil disobedience and even sabotage to bring their environmental message to government and the public and to urge industry to stop its…
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Full text Article JOURNEY

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American environmentalist and nature writer That's the best thing about walking, the journey itself. It doesn't matter much whether you get where you're going or not. You'll get there anyway. Every good hike brings you eventually back home. Right where you ­started. The Journey Home: Some Words in…
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Full text Article COLORADO

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American environmentalist and nature writer Floating down a portion of Rio Colorado in Utah a rare month in spring, twenty-two years ago, a friend and I found ourselves passing through a world so beautiful it seemed and had to be eternal. Such perfection of being, we thought – these glens of…
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Full text Article PARADISE

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American environmentalist and nature writer When I write “paradise” I mean not only apple trees and golden women but also scorpions and tarantulas and flies, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters, sandstorms, volcanoes and earthquakes, bacteria and bear, cactus, yucca, bladderweed, ocotillo and mesquite, …
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Full text Article CITY

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American nature writer We must save the city. It is essence and substance of us all-we cannot lose it without diminishing our stature as a nation, without a fatal wound. The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West Chapter 9 (p. 101 ) E.P. Dutton & Company. New York New York USA…
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