About this title: DESERT SOLITAIRE, widely considered to be one of Abbey's best books, is the account of two summers he spent in the canyon lands of southeastern Utah. First published in 1968, the book has acquired a huge following over the years, and stands as one of the author's most impassioned pleas for the preservation of the wilderness, and has become a classic of American nature writing.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780345326492ISBN:0345326490
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Edgeware to cover spine bent Text Clean Binding Tight. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 337 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780345326492ISBN:0345326490
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Edgeware to cover remainder marks pages yellowed Inside Pages Clean Binding Tight Spine Uncreased. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 337 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Text is clean, tight and unblemished. Cover has 1/2" chip missing from back rear, small crease on front. Classic edition. Original Ballantine Mass market cover. 337 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Thirteenth Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780345326492ISBN:0345326490
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Wraps have light edgewear. Pages are clean & text is free from markings. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780345326492ISBN:0345326490
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 1990 Edition. Good soft cover w/readers spine creases. Very clean inside copy. Gently read. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 337 p. Audience: General/trade. 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."
"Some people argue that the difference between infatuation and love is your attitude towards the recipients faults. In infatuation, we do our best to pretend the person is faultless; put them on a pedestal and turn a blind eye towards failings. Love, on the other hand, sees the person as a whole - and rather than ignoring the faults, acknowledges them, and loves them, too. If that is true, than Desert Solitaire is Edward Abbey's love poem to the desert of Southwestern Utah.
The book recounts a summer Abbey spent, in his youth, living as a park ranger at Arches National Monument, in Utah. Now, I confess a deep affection for that part of our country - but I feel like my love pales in comparison to Abbey's. He loves the country, warts and all - not just the impressive rock formations, but also the harsh, waterless desert atmosphere. Not just the beautiful desert flowers, but also rattlesnakes, scorpions, black widows, and tarantulas. Not just the colorful desert sunsets, chromatically striated from all the dust in the air, but also the fact that, more often than not, there's no one there to share it with.
But if Desert Solitaire is part love poem, it is also part elegy. Though I was blown away by Arches when we stopped in Moab during the bike trip, Abbey would argue that his Arches was long gone by the time I got there. The desert, as he saw it, was being done in by development, motorized/automotive tourism, and the misdirection of the Park Service. Part of the charm of the desert (built into the very title of the book) is its very inaccessibility and inhospitality. To make Arches easily reachable by thousands of car-enclosed tourists is, to Abbey's mind, to remove part of the soul of the location.
His mourning of the lost parts of the Southwest is not always so abstract. In the chapter "Down the River," he and a friend take a long raft trip down Glen Canyon, soon before a dam down river is built - which, when completed, will submerge the entire canyon. It's a deeply affecting chapter, as they discover hidden nooks and crannies throughout the canyon, all too aware that they may be the last to ever see them. If these are the costs of development, Abbey would argue, then we've made a Faustian bargain."
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