BETWEEN THE LINES

Book Talk by Joe Neri

Edward Abbey - Desert Anarchist

Edward Abbey was born in 1927 in western Pennsylvania. As soon as he was able to, at the early age of seventeen, he traveled to the Southwest and fell in love with the desert, beginning a life of dedication and service to this magnificent landscape.

After serving in the armed forces in post-war Europe, and studying at a couple of universities, he worked as a seasonal ranger at Arches National Monument in Utah. His journal of his early experiences there eventually would become the core of his most famous book - DESERT SOLITARE.

Abbey deeply loved and respected the desert Southwest. Through his books, both fiction and nonfiction, he became one of the most outspoken and convincing opponents of the people, businesses and governments that were destroying the landscape for greed and power. He became “a voice crying in the wilderness,” a voice that motivated many individuals and groups to fight back against the forces of unbridled development.

His works are as relevant now as they were when they were written, decades ago. The only difference is that we present-day inhabitants of the Southwest have lost a lot of ground, literally and figuratively. But Abbey's words continue to resonate with truth and urgency, a call to action to do something about the human-generated erosion of rocks, trees, plants and animals.

Abbey was a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction. His best known novel, THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG, is about a group of disparate comrades who conspire to blow up Glen Canyon Dam as well as of sabotage against industrial development projects.

Abbey died in 1989. His gravesite, known only to a few close friends, is hidden somewhere in the red rock wilderness of the Southwest.

On Monday, January 29, 2007, The Well Red Coyote will be hosting a commemoration of what would have been Edward Abbey's 80th birthday, honoring the man and his body of work. The program will feature James Bishop, Jr., author of EPITAPH FOR A DESERT ANARCHIST, David Keeber, director of the Sedona Public Library, and Gary Every, local writer and poet. The program is free and open to the public, beginning at 7:00 pm.