This article is about the book. For the album dedicated to Edward Abbey, see Desert Solitaire (album).
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
First edition cover
Author
Edward Abbey
Illustrator
Peter Parnall
Language
English
Genre
Autobiography
Publisher
McGraw-Hill
Publication date
1968
Publication place
United States
Media type
Hardcover
Pages
336
ISBN
9780008283322
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness is an autobiographical work by American writer Edward Abbey, originally published in 1968. It is his fourth book and his first book-length non-fiction work. The book follows three fiction books: Jonathan Troy (1954), The Brave Cowboy (1956), and Fire on the Mountain (1962). Although it initially garnered little attention, Desert Solitaire was eventually recognized as an iconic work of nature writing and a staple of early environmentalist writing, bringing Abbey critical acclaim and popularity as a writer of environmental, political, and philosophical issues.
Based on Abbey's activities as a park ranger at Arches National Monument (now Arches National Park) in the late 1950s, the book is often compared to Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac.[1] It is written as a series of vignettes about Abbey's experiences in the Colorado Plateau region of the desert Southwestern United States, ranging from vivid descriptions of the fauna, flora, geology, and human inhabitants of the area, to firsthand accounts of wilderness exploration and river running, to a polemic against development and excessive tourism in the national parks, to stories of the author's work with a search and rescue team to pull a human corpse out of the desert. The book is interspersed with observations and discussions about the various tensions – physical, social, and existential – between humans and the desert environment. Many of the chapters also engage in lengthy critiques of modern Western civilization, United States politics, and the decline of America's natural environment.
^Hamilton, Geoff; Jones, Brian (2013). Encyclopedia of the Environment in American literature. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 5. ISBN 978-0786465415.
DesertSolitaire: A Season in the Wilderness is an autobiographical work by American writer Edward Abbey, originally published in 1968. It is his fourth...
inspiration by radical environmental groups, and the non-fiction work DesertSolitaire. Abbey was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania on January 29, 1927 to Mildred...
The Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Rodrigues, east of Madagascar in the Indian...
River prior to the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in his 1968 memoir DesertSolitaire, in the chapter titled "Down the River". Glen Canyon National Recreation...
Monument in 1956 and 1957, where he kept journals that became his book DesertSolitaire. The success of Abbey's book, as well as interest in adventure travel...
demonstrated in the writings of Edward Abbey with particular regard to DesertSolitaire where solitude focused only on isolation from other people allows for...
bottle of Liebfrauenmilch, very likely to be a subtle joke. In the book DesertSolitaire, by Edward Abbey, the author stops at a liquor store to purchase a...
autobiographical recount of his summer as a park ranger at Arches National Park, DesertSolitaire, contains a reference to "seven modern cities of Cibola" including...
Lost World, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2000 Abbey, Edward, DesertSolitaire, Ballantine Books, 1985 Glick, Daniel (April 2006). "A Dry Red Season:...
book Into the Wild. He is also mentioned in Edward Abbey's 1968 book DesertSolitaire. Wallace Stegner, in his 1942 book, Mormon Country, devotes an entire...
American West. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994. Abbey, Edward. DesertSolitaire : A Season in the Wilderness. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Castaneda...
working with Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny and/or Ron Sunsinger (1989 : DesertSolitaire, 1994 : Singing Stones and Kiva) or alone (1993 : Sacred Sites, 1995 :...
protected natural areas, posing a threat to their ecology. In his book, DesertSolitaire, Abbey wrote: "Industrial tourism is a threat to the national parks...
the centre of the desert), or Swakopmund and Walvis Bay at the north end of the desert. Bogenfels Sesriem Skeleton Coast Solitaire Sossusvlei Deadvlei...
illustrated by Peter Parnall; text: Sheila Moon (Atheneum) 1968: DesertSolitaire, illustrated by Peter Parnall; text: Edward Abbey (McGraw-Hill) (subsequent...
around the United States. Schlesinger, Victoria (July–August 2007). "DesertSolitaire". Archaeology. 60 (4). Archaeological Institute of America. In the...
Lost Pieces Vol. 3 (2003) Collaborative albums Western Spaces (1987) DesertSolitaire (1989) Strata (1990) Australia: Sound of the Earth (1990) Soma (1992)...
Lawrence Solomon 2008 Global warming: denial ISBN 978-0-9800763-1-8 DesertSolitaire: A Season in the Wilderness Edward Abbey 1968 Memoir; conservation...
album, Structures from Silence, on the radio while driving through the desert towards Mexico. He informed Steve Roach of his current documentary film...
(1991). Accounts of various long distance walks. Edward Abbey (1968) DesertSolitaire Colin Fletcher (1968) The Complete Walker Annie Dillard, (1974) Pilgrim...
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