Abbey in America: A Philosopher's Legacy in a New Century

by John A. Murray (Editor)

Overview

More than twenty-five years after his death, iconic writer and nature activist Edward Abbey (1927-1989) remains an influential presence in the American environmental movement. Abbey's best known works continue to be widely read and inspire discourse on the key issues facing contemporary American society, particularly with respect to urbanization and technology. Abbey in America, published forty years after Abbey's popular novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, features an all-star list of contributors, including journalists, authors, scholars, and two of Abbey's best friends as they explore Abbey's ideas and legacy through their unique literary, personal, and scholarly perspectives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826355171
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	06/15/2015
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John A. Murray is the author of forty-five books, including Cinema Southwest: An Illustrated Guide to the Movies and Their Locations, which received the Southwest Book Award, and Mythmakers of the West: Shaping America's Imagination, which received the Colorado Book Award. He was the founding editor of the world nature series for Oxford University Press and of the American Nature Writing annual for Sierra Club Books. Among his books is Writing About Nature: A Creative Guide, also available from the University of New Mexico Press.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction: Edward Abbey, Yesterday and Today 1

Part 1 Scholarly Perspectives

1 Equal Parts Anger and Love: A Posthumous Interview with Edward Abbey Kathleen Dean Moore 27

2 One Man's Terrorist: Reclaiming Edward Abbey for the Post-9/11 Era Michael Branch 35

3 Edward Abbey on Immigration John Alcock 43

4 Abbey in the Anthropocene Curt Meine 51

5 Abbey's Secret Ben A. Minteer 57

Part 2 Independent Authors

6 The View from Alaska Nancy Lord 65

7 A Meditation on Two Works by Ed Abbey Glenn Vanstrum 71

Part 3 Friends, Acquaintances, and Colleagues

8 Abbey's Road Edward Hoagland 83

9 Desert Solitaire Revisited Doug Peacock 91

10 Abbey Following His Own Truth Jack Loeffler 97

11 On the Edge with Edward Abbey, Charles Ives, and the Outlaws Charles Bowden 107

12 The Age of Abbey John A. Murray 123

Part 4 A New Generation

13 Faraway Genoa Alexander 167

14 Valle de la Luna Esther Rose Honig 171

Afterword 181

Appendix. The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel A Review by John A. Murray 197

Further Reading 201

Contributors 207

Index 213