Edward Abbey: A Life

This book is the best among the several I've read on Abbey. It contains by far the most details about his life in both its glories and its agonies, and Abbey's voice rings through loud and clear all the way through, partly because Cahalan interweaves plenty of just the right quotations from Abbey's writings, both published and unpublished. It's also the only book I've read that gets the facts right: from where he was born (which WASN'T Home, Pa.), where he lived (many places, but never Oracle); who his many friends, wives, and lovers were; what he actually did and thought; and much, much more. This author has the guts to tell Abbey's whole story, not just paint a picture, at the same time that the cover and inside photographs are great. It separates the real Abbey from the mythical one, but somehow the actual Abbey--warts and all--is even more impressive than the mythical one perpetuated by other authors, including Abbey himself. The big chronological bibliography of all of Abbey's writings is by itself worth the price of this book (even if the book itself weren't also more than worth it); such a bibliography has never before been published. I enjoyed this book from cover to cover, and learned a lot from it.

Any life as filled with controversy, contradiction and conflict as Ed Abbey's cannot be summed up in any one book. That is why Jim Cahalan's book is a valuable addition to any library that assumes to describe this complicated character. No other book about Abbey has as much detail, fact and non-creative non-fiction as Cahalan's. Abbey intended to be an enigma, making the task of uncovering the real person even more daunting. Cahalan has shown the perseverance of a private investigator in uncovering as much reality as anyone knows about Ed Abbey. His organizational skills have given us a wonderful view of Abbey's work, life and philosophy. This book is highly recommended for anyone who desires to have as complete a picture as possible of the 20th century's most important environmental anarchist, Edward Abbey.

James Cahalan's _Edward Abbey: A Life_ presents the most complete account of the life and times of this superb twentieth-century American writer and radical environmentalist. Cahalan reveals the complex nature of Abbey, from his roving youth in Appalachia to his turbulent adult relationships and finally to his illegal burial in the desert. This biography does not over-romanticize Abbey's life (the way Bishop's _Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist_ tends to do), but tells the true story of his life the way it was, utilizing interviews with a variety of sources who knew Abbey through the years and who surely knew him well. Cahalan introduces us to many of the people Abbey would use as the models for the characters in his novels. And his study also brings us closer to the real Ed Abbey while providing a corrective for those critics who would find him racist and misogynist. For the Abbey fan, _Edward Abbey: A Life_ is irreplaceable and provides the most extensive bibliography of Abbey's writings known. And for those who are just getting to know Abbey, this biography will get you hooked on this unforgettable American author and protector of wilderness. Either way, this book is a must.

Edward Abbey (1927-1989) had a big impact on me through his book, DESERT SOLITAIRE. Although our paths never crossed, we shared the same Arizona desert. He taught at the University of Arizona while I was a college student there, and for awhile we even lived in the same Tucson canyon. In James Cahalan's new biography, "cult followers of 'Cactus Ed,' on the one hand, will encounter in these pages another, different, more private Abbey. On the other hand, readers and teachers who have decided from some fleeting snapshot that Abbey disliked other races and women, for example, and do not want to read or teach his books, can read more about the Abbey who edited a bilingual English-Spanish newspaper and spoke at a Navajo rally, and the Abbey who so helpfully reviewed, advised, and befriended several women writers" (p. xii), including Arizona activist Katie Lee, Terry Tempest Williams, Ann Zwinger (p. xii), and Annie Dillard (p. 137).Cahalan reveals that Abbey's books are autobiographical to an extent, and that his subject went to great lengths to perpetuate the persona of "Cactus Ed." For instance, Abbey was not born in Home, as he claimed, nor did he ever live in Oracle (pp. xi, 3). Based on his careful research and more than 100 interviews with people who knew Abbey, including Abbey's widow, Clarke Cartwright-Abbey, his siblings, and friends such as Dave Foreman, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, and Leslie Marmon Silko, Cahalan succeeds in bringing his subject to life in these pages. Abbey's fascinating life reads like fiction. Abbey was "an independent, rebellious, free spirit" even from an early age (p. 20). He was a "loner" in high school, and a "kind of hippie of his day" (p. 21), who hitchhiked West between his junior and senior years in high school (p. 28). "It was wanderlust, pure and simple" (p. 31), Abbey said. He became a Westerner at age 17, obsessed, "sense and mind, by desert thoughts, canyon thoughts" (p. 63) for the rest of his life. After graduating from high school in 1945, he joined the army (p. 33) before later becoming an anti-war activist (p. 99)."No home, no income, no job" (p. 80) was a familiar theme in Abbey's life. Cahalan follows Abbey, "fueled by separation, lust, and alcohol" (p. 273), through his jobs as bartender, caseworker, laborer, teacher, technical writer, and ranger, from Appalachia, Alaska, Albuquerque, Cabeza Prieta, Taos, Death Valley, Glen Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Half Moon Bay, Moab to Tucson. Along his path from free-spirited loner to "postmodern, anarchist cowboy" (p. 225), Abbey marries five times and fathers five children before his March 14, 1989 death. Cahalan triumphs in revealing that Abbey lived in a "tortured inner world" amidst a "beautiful outerworld" (p. 91).Abbey would probaby have "no comment" about Cahalan's well-researched, insightful biography. "Death is not tragic," he would remind us. Rather, existing "without fully participating in life--that is the deepest personal tragedy" (

Edward Abbey; A Life is a fine chronicle of the life of perhaps the greatest American writer of the 20th century. Mr. Cahalan offers a balanced, stick-to-the-well researced facts, account of Abbey's life. He obviously had excellent cooperation from a number of people who knew Abbey well. He also does not fall into the trap of offering his own analysis of Abbey. This leads to a book about Abbey and not what the biographer thinks of Abbey as happened in Bishop's biography. After reading Edward Abbey: A Life, you may not want to blow up a dam, but you will come to wish you got to spent some time with Abbey in a deserted fire tower.