Edward Abbey, Conservative Anarchist
From the American Spectator By Bill Croke
Edward Paul Abbey was born on January 29, 1927, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of a farmer and logger.
After a 1944 hitchhiking trip west at 17, he served in the U.S. Army late in World War II and afterwards, then
enrolled at the University of New Mexico in 1948 on the G.I. Bill, eventually earning a Master's Degree in
philosophy. During this time Abbey started to write as he began concurrently to explore the backcountry of the
Southwest in his spare time, specifically the Four Corners area (where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New
Mexico meet), otherwise known as the Colorado Plateau because it's drained by that great river.
It was among the last of Western regions to be surveyed and mapped. In 1869, John Wesley Powell was its
primary explorer when he led a party in dories down the rapids-ravaged canyons of the Green and Colorado
Rivers from Green River, Wyoming, all the way through the Grand Canyon. It's an unforgiving region of
deserts and mountains, much of it federal land, and home to a half dozen national parks. Here Abbey found the
subject that was the focus of his four decades as a writer.
Money was tight, though, and Abbey also worked odd jobs through the 1950s and '60s. His most noteworthy
employment was as a seasonal ranger at Arches National Monument (now Arches National Park) near Moab,
Utah, in 1959. This experience (along with others) culminated in the 1968 publication of Desert Solitaire, the
book that made his reputation. After that, Cactus Ed became the Thoreau of the West.
Here he is in Glen Canyon before the eponymous dam was built (1963) that created Lake Powell: The sandstone
walls rise higher than ever before, rounding off on top as half-domes and capitols, golden and glowing in the
sunlight, a deep radiant red in the shade.
And this from the same trip: Beyond the side canyon the walls rise again, slick and monolithic, in color a blend
of pink, buff, yellow, orange, overlaid in part with a glaze of "desert varnish" (iron oxide) or streaked in certain
places with vertical draperies of black organic stains, the residue from plant life beyond the rim and from the
hanging gardens that flourish in the deep grottoes high on the walls. Some of those alcoves are like great
amphitheatres, large as the Hollywood Bowl, big enough for God's own symphony orchestra.
In an essay entitled "Eco-Defense," he writes: "Eco-defense is risky but sporting; unauthorized but fun; illegal
but ethically imperative…Spike those trees; you won't hurt them; they'll be grateful for the protection; and you
may save the forest. Loggers hate nails."
Abbey's most controversial role was only obliquely related to his work. In 1975 he published his novel The
Monkey Wrench Gang. The plot involves four anarchic enviros who conspire to blow up Glen Canyon Dam. In
a case of life imitates art, the book inspired the establishment of a notorious radical green group in 1980 known
as Earth First!, with Abbey as a charter member. Earth First! "membership" was and remains (to the extent that
it even exists today) anonymous and shadowy, as it's known for acts of "monkey wrenching" of earthmoving
and logging equipment, spiking trees, stealing survey stakes, cutting wire fences, and so on. "Earth First!" has
spawned ancillary groups such as the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), which before its downfall at the hands of
the FBI in 2006 burned down a Colorado ski lodge, and destroyed a number of vehicles at an SUV dealership in
Eugene, Oregon, among other acts of domestic terrorism.
Cactus Ed was a prickly sort; a conservative anarchist, if you will, who on one hand could support eco-terrorism
(a favorite motto was: "Keep America Beautiful -- Burn a Billboard!"), and on the other supported the National
Rifle Association (NRA), and restrictions on immigration. When he died of natural causes, some of his Earth
First! compatriots famously and illegally absconded with his body, and buried it in a secret place in remote
desert outside of Tucson. And there he lies to this day, pushing up cactus.
Excerpts from the Wikipedia Entry on Edward Abbey
Desert Solitaire is regarded as one of the finest nature
narratives in American literature, and has been compared to
Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Thoreau's
Walden. In it, Abbey vividly describes the physical
landscapes of Southern Utah and delights in his isolation as
a back country park ranger, recounting adventures in the
nearby canyon country and mountains. He also attacks what
he terms the "industrial tourism" and resulting development
in the national parks ("national parking lots"), rails against
the Glen Canyon Dam and comments on various other
subjects.
Abbey stated that he deliberately wrote to provoke people to
anger, hoping to "wake them up", but that he also tried to
make his writing entertaining and
engaging for the reader. Abbey felt
that it was the duty of all authors to
"speak the truth--especially
unpopular truth. Especially truth
that offends the powerful, the rich,
the well-established, the traditional,
the mythic". His abrasiveness, opposition to anthropocentrism, and outspoken writings
made him the object of much controversy. Agrarian author Wendell Berry claimed that
Abbey was regularly criticized by mainstream environmental groups because Abbey
often advocated controversial positions that were very different from those which
environmentalists were commonly expected to hold.
Sometimes called the "desert anarchist," Abbey was known to anger
people o f all political stripes, including environmentalists. In his
essays the narrator describes throwing beer cans out of his car,
claiming the highway had already littered the landscape. Abbey even
had an FBI file opened on him in 1947, after he posted a letter while
in college urging people to rid themselves of their draft cards. He
differed from the stereotype of environmentalist as politically correct
leftist by disclaiming the counterculture and the "trendy campus
people", saying he didn't want them as his primary fans, and by
supporting some conservative causes such as immigration reduction
and the National Rifle Association.
Regarding the accusation of "eco-terrorism", Abbey responded that
the tactics he supported were trying to defend against the terrorism he
felt was committed by government and industry against living beings
and the environment.