Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an American nature writer. He is known for books including Desert Solitaire, Black Sun, The Journey Home, The Fool's Progress, and Hayduke Lives.
Early life and education
He was born in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States in 1927. He grew up in Pennsylvania, in a small town in the mountains near the city of Pittsburgh. He later moved to the American Southwest and wrote several books. He spent most of his adult life in the states of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. Most of his books are about the Southwest.
During World War II, he was in high school. He took a trip hitchhiking to see the American West. During his trip through Arizona and New Mexico, he fell in love with the Southwest. He enlisted near the end of World War II and was stationed in Italy as a military policeman. When he came back to the United States, he moved to New Mexico and got a college degree. Then he started writing books.
Writing works
Abbey's first book was titled Jonathan Troy. It did not sell well and Abbey did not like it very much, and it was taken out of print. His second book was The Brave Cowboy. This book sold better and made him known as a writer of western fiction. It was also made into a movie called Lonely are the Brave. Fire on the Mountain was his third book. The Brave Cowboy and Fire on the Mountain are about cowboys who loved the old American West and did not like it becoming modernized.
He moved to New Jersey for a short time but did not like it, and moved back to the Southwest. He took a job as a park ranger in Utah. He wrote about his job as a park ranger in his fourth book, Desert Solitaire. Desert Solitaire became a bestseller and made him a popular nature writer. He also took other jobs in the Southwest. He worked as a fire lookout at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and as a park ranger in other National Parks.
After Desert Solitaire became a bestseller, he wrote several books of nature essays. Some of these include The Journey Home, Abbey's Road, Down the River, Beyond the Wall, and One Life At a Time, Please. He also kept writing novels. His next novel was Black Sun, which is about a fire lookout at the Grand Canyon falling in love but then seeing his girlfriend disappear. His next novel after that was The Monkey Wrench Gang. This was his most controversial novel because it was about four people using sabotage to stop development in the Southwest. He also wrote a science fiction novel called Good News.
His last two novels were The Fool's Progress and Hayduke Lives. The Fool's Progress is a long novel that is based on Edward Abbey's own life. Hayduke Lives is a sequel to The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Abbey died in 1989 and was buried in the desert in Arizona.
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