About this title: "A passionately felt, deeply poetic book. It has philosophy. It has humor. It has its share of nerve-tingling adventures...set down in a lean, racing prose, in a close-knit style of power and beauty." THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKREVIEW Edward Abbey lived for three seasons in the desert at Moab, Utah, and what he discovered about the land before him, ...
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Touchstone
Date Published: 1990-01-15
ISBN-13:9780671695880ISBN:0671695886
Description: Good. Some scattered underlining; a few page corners have fold marks; binding secure; moderate shelfwear; not a remainder; quick shipping. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Seventh Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780345278661ISBN:0345278666
Description: Good. Brief summary of content available on request by e-mail. read more
Description: Very Good. 0671695886 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light discoloration due to aging and other light wear. read more
Edition: 11th Printing
Binding: Trade Softcover
Publisher: Touchstone Book/Simon & Schuster, New York, NY
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780671695880ISBN:0671695886
Description: Peter Parnall. Near Fine+ Nature. 32mo-over 4"-5" tall. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Touchstone
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780671695880ISBN:0671695886
Description: Fine-Used in None as Issued jacket. / 0671695886. Like new. Minimal shelfwear. No markings. Pages are clean and bright. Binding is tight. read more
Description: Very Good. 0671695886 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Description: SOFTBOUND, 4x7", Owner's Name on endpaper, Sound VG Cond. Arches National Monument park ranger. If you REQUEST A SCAN from me I will send you one. Ballantine (1978), 0345278666. read more
Edition: Seventh Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster-Touchstone, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1968
ISBN-13:9780671207168ISBN:0671207164
Description: Peter Parnall-Drawings. Very Good. 5" x 8" 269 pages. A tight, square book with no marks or stamps. Some light weat to cover edges and corners. Just a hing of age-tanning to some page borders. A naturalist romance about the desert Southwest landscape and environment. A celebration of the beauty of living in the harsh, hostile and heavenly, pre-tourist, Arches National Monument, Utah. A rare view of a quest to experience nature in its purest form by an ex-park ranger in Utah. The author is a ... read more
"A book/diary Abbey wrote from his experiences as a park ranger in Arches National Park (My favorite place on this entire planet!): his reverence for the land and the spirit of place.
This was one of the first books I ever read that articulated what I felt about the red rock country of Southern Utah. There is a spiritual, divine, eternal nature to the vistas of red rock, the contrast of the cerulean blue skies, the dry heat, red sands, junipers, sage.
Abbey was seen by most westerners of his time as a radical, intellectual outsider who wanted to preserve the Utah wilderness only for the elite, but time has shown him to be somewhat prophetic in the damage and loss of pristine lands to private interests and commercialism. Of course his novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang went even farther, glorifying environmental terrorism to protest the building of Glen Canyon dam.
But today, Moab and the rest of southern Utah's red rock deserts are overrun by "recreationists" more interested in a good bike ride or river-rafting thrill ride than they are in using the land in ways that preserves it for others to enjoy it as well.
I'm not an elitist. I don't think these areas should be wilderness preserves, reserved only for the wealthy, the young, and the fit. I believe all Americans should have access, but this should be controlled access which preserves this sacred areas from becoming like the worn, private and state areas east of the Mississippi River -- outdoor wonders that have become so worn that they feel more like Branson, Missouri or the Wisconsin Dells. Yellowstone is in danger of this, as are Yosemite, Arches, and many others."
"Let me start by saying that Desert Solitaire is certainly a book that sticks with you. Edward Abbey's writing contains vivid imagery. I have been to the part of the country he is writing about in this book and he definitely describes it accurately. However, i feel that even if one had never been there, one could get a sense for what the desert is all about. Here is a passage about a thunderstorm that illustrates this point:
"The massive forms jostle and grate, ions collide, and the sound of thunder is heard over the sun-drenched land. More clouds emerge from empty sky, anvil-headed giants with glints of lightning in their depths. An armada assembles and advances, floating on a plane of air that makes it appear, from below, as a fleet of ships must look to the fish in the sea."
I also thoroughly enjoy how Abbey will use entire sections of the book to rant and rave about how we, people, are destroying nature. Entire chapters about how the tourism industry is too much a business. This is something i think about often. Where to draw the line between allowing people to see the beauties of our country, in fact, doing what we can to make it more convenient to do so, and preserving nature by keeping people out?? Another passage:
"Wilderness, wilderness... We scarcely know what we mean by the term, though the sound of it draws all whose nerves and emotions have not yet ben irreparably stunned, deadened, numbed by the caterwauling of commerce, the sweating scramble for profit and domination."
Overall i thought it was an excellent read and would certainly recommend it to anyone! That's all i have on this, for now."
"I somehow had an ill founded notion that I would be bored by this book, but this was not the case. It was compelling to read, and to see SE Utah through Abbey's eyes. He is such a controversial writer in our area with extremists in both camps. I wasn't sure what to expect, but there is much to learn from his experiences and I loved following his footsteps through places I had seen and sometimes been to. His campaign of course is to get tourists out of their cars and their feet on mother earth. He believed that "industrialized tourism was a threat to National Parks." Those who do this, and walk the immensity of San Juan and Grand Counties, will love this book, but I also see the narrowness of opportunity it presents, as many can't, or shouldn't undertake his wandering experience. And when they do, often the very motorized demons he attacks, must be solicited to rescue the ill prepared, unlucky, or misfortunate. Surely, there must be a compromise. Abbey does show his humanity a bit, when he admits, "the only thing better than solitude, is society." A definite must read if you love SE Utah."
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