The conclusion of this series culminates here with [one of] the best you-are-there authors fit for being on the trail. These posts were not meant to be in any particular order, but I was always told to leave the best for last. Edward Abbey's pure passion for the outdoors and America's wildest places make one feel as if he is walking the same trail, observing the same canyons, and listening to the same stream as themselves.
One part Dillardesque empiricist and two parts Thoreau's political skeptic, Abbey has long delighted, enraged, enlightened, and set afoot readers since his first work in 1954. While his fiction has gained some of the greatest recognition, including the genesis of radical environmentalists Earth First! and a movie in discussion, his non-fiction prints the foundation of his later works.
Abbey will keep it funny and interesting and will surely ask for another log to be put on the fire, or dose bourbon to be poured in your cup.
Recommendations: Desert Solitaire: A Season In The Wilderness (1968); The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975).
Note: Memorial Day just passed and summer's unofficially begun. Get out and play. Bring a book.
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I'd definitely start with Desert Solitaire before reading The Monkey Wrench Gang. MWG is a fun novel, but it tends to give people the wrong idea about Abbey. The true beauty in his writing are his narratives about the desert, and his experiences with it. MWG is a tad juvenile, and makes people think that Abbey is a dimestore pulp writer.
Abbey maintained that Black Sun was his favorite novel, and it's fairly underrated among Abbey readers. It's one of my favorite books that he wrote, probably because it's so different from his others.
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