Another Perspective
Edward Abbey, Conservative Anarchist
Unfortunately, this writer and essayist, who died 20 years ago tomorrow, also had a soft spot for eco-terrorism.
Cactus Ed (a nickname he liked) is dead, lo these twenty years (March 14, 1989). He was a less controversial figure in his time than he is today, and certainly has more readers. I recently attended a lecture/book discussion on the author's Desert Solitaire at my local public library, and wasn't surprised by what I heard. Small town book clubs tend to be the pet projects of liberals bent on "promoting literacy," and attract likeminded people. The discussion was moderated by a local Abbey fan, a woman of some academic credentials, and roughly twenty people took part. I've read Desert Solitaire twice, but went to the lecture on a whim, only flipping through my paperback copy shortly beforehand, intending to just listen. The group chewed over the book for 90 minutes, and the takeaway for me was that most people there thought Abbey to be a larger-than-life iconic character, the life transcending the work. And they mostly agreed with his severe critique of the management of the public lands, his ambiguous views on the national parks, and his anarchic thoughts concerning humankind's history and place on the planet, in general. An amusing evening.
Edward Abbey's posthumous fame lies mostly with the Green Left, especially in the West. He's attained that iconic cult status as a man who embodied equal parts Henry David Thoreau (Larry McMurtry once called him "The Thoreau of the American West") and John Muir, with an added dash of Mikhail Bakunin. Somebody who thought and wrote, but also acted, and influenced others to act, however indirectly. All this begs an old question: Does a writer pushing an agenda in his work compromise the artistic integrity of that work? In Abbey's case the answer is both yes and no, because he was much more a polemicist than an artist.
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.
Abbey started as a novelist with a run into the 1960s with series of competently executed but forgettable books such as Jonathan Troy (1954), The Brave Cowboy (1956), and Fire on the Mountain (1962). The Brave Cowboy was made into Lonely Are the Brave (1962), a film starring Kirk Douglas, thus earning Abbey some much-needed Hollywood money. During this time he also churned out essays and journalism about his wanderings in "the back of beyond."
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.
The book is in some ways an episodic pastiche. Abbey alternates vividly written chapters describing the multi-hued landscapes of Arches and elsewhere with others featuring cranky polemics about Bureau of Reclamation river dams and "Industrial Tourism." But those sharp landscape renderings are some of the finest writing extant about the desert Southwest. 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.
Companions to Desert Solitaire are the essays found in such collections as The Journey Home (1977), Abbey's Road (1979), Down the River (1982), Beyond the Wall (1984), and One Life at a Time, Please (1988). The subjects of the essays (the form being possibly Abbey's greatest strength as a writer) vary from detailed accounts of his wanderings -- rafting the Colorado, exploring such landscape oddities as the San Rafael Swell or Big Bend National Park -- to passionate polemics against national park infrastructure development or Bureau of Land Management (BLM) policies on leasing grazing land to ranchers. The latter type showed that Abbey would have done well as an 18th-century pamphleteer. 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, a book that alongside Desert Solitaire enhanced his reputation as an environmentalist, but unlike the latter tome it has prose as purple as an Arizona sunset. 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. Other noteworthy members were activist/writer Doug Peacock, and Dave Foreman, an ex-Goldwater Republican. 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.
About the Author
Bill Croke, formerly of Cody, Wyoming, is a writer in Salmon, Idaho.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (48) | Leave a comment
Leave a Comment
Related Articles
More Articles by Bill Croke
More Articles From Another Perspective
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/13/edward-abbey-conservative-anar
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- Herbert Hoover's Long-Awaited Magnum Opus
- Useless Wonks
- Who's Really Conservative?
- Digital Subscription (Save 78%)
- Buy a single issue (Save 50%)
- Send Spectator as a gift
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Nigel Assam| 3.13.09 @ 10:19AM
I work at a well-known university press (and am one of the few conservatives on staff and not cowering, but bold enough to the point that others know) and there is an encyclopedia of environmentalists being published, with Abbey as the first listing and the author of the entry quotes Abbey as saying that he approved of such extreme behavior. There is no apology in the book's introduction, nor in Abbey's entry, for such extreme behavior, or admission of error in this 'science'. There are also listings for Gore, Rachel Carson and many others. The domination of these ideas is terrible.
George| 3.15.10 @ 5:06PM
Wher will you live when all the earth is either used up or completely populated?
Nigel Assam| 3.13.09 @ 10:24AM
"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." - that was his actual request.
S.L. Toddard| 3.13.09 @ 11:59AM
JEREMIAH AND BOB: FYI - I haven't been posting here in over a month, since maybe Feb 2nd. There is a troll here who adopts other people's names and posts as them. I never called Bob "blow-bob" or whatever. I saw you also got into some scraps with him, Jeremiah. None of it was me. I don't use terms like "lib" or whatever else this clown said.
Imagine doing that - being that pathetic? Logging on and pretending to be someone else you only know through the internet? It's sad and the sort of thing one would expect of a stalker.
Anyway, none of the posts under my name - S.L. Toddard - have actually been me since the first couple days of February. It's been that same, sad, lonely troll.
Jack| 3.13.09 @ 12:02PM
The fine singer/songwriter Tom Russell wrote a tune called "Edward Abbey." It had the memorable verse:
And when Ed saw a billboard, he'd chop that bastard down.
Said if a man can't piss in his own front yard,
he's livin' too close to town.
David Govett| 3.13.09 @ 2:36PM
Abbey's life was extinguished by the very nature that so enamored him. I find illusory the beauty of such a remorseless charnel houses.
Pingback| 3.15.09 @ 3:06AM
Collide-a-scape » Blog Archive » Collide-a-scape >> Ed Abbey, Reimagined links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
D. Dodd| 3.16.09 @ 1:58AM
As a staunch Conservative all of my life (also an adopted Arizonan), I discovered Edward Abbey while serving my Country in the US Navy. I read him as I am sure he intended: entertaining prose, describing the beauty of perhaps our most beautiful and diversified State. He wrote with an imp sitting on his shoulder and tongue firmly placed in cheek. He likely never indulged in the capers attributed to him, although his alter-ego, Hayduke, certainly gave that impression. He was correct about many things e.g. "open range" cattle foraging remains to this day a scourge to Arizona, at great taxpayer expense. He was also a friend of Barry Goldwater! Earth First! claimed to take their directives from his writings, but succeeded in doing so only in their view. In reality Ed Abbey was much the pacifist and a Conservative to boot! Re-read his works for the beauty they contain, not the eco-rantings of a mob-styled Liberal hate squad like Earth First! Remember even Will Hutchins (Sugarfoot) fell for the same rantings! (he was arrested in Prescott) Yes, he did in fact, request his body be hidden in his beloved Desert, where only the eagles would know where he was! Despite the bad press, he remains a hero to me.
Jack Smith| 3.16.09 @ 4:00AM
Ed Abbey wrote an essay for the New York Times editorial page way back in 1985 entitled, “Immigration and Liberal Taboos” in which he lamented the damage being done to the natural world due to open borders especially in the American Southwest. The New York Times refused to publish Abbey’s essay, even refusing to pay the “spike” fee. Abbey later published the essay unchanged in his book of essays One Life at a Time Please.
Abbey was in some sense a one of a kind, but really a throw back to an earlier and more authentic American man. Too bad he isn’t here today to raise his courageous voice against the follies of our times, which he saw very clearly before he left us.
icr | 3.16.09 @ 11:22PM
If Abbey were alive today he would be the perfect
RNC chairman-
And if the GOP really wanted to survive they would have found ways to make him accept. The current guy is such a goofball and incompetent buffoon that he must go soon, and replacing him an "Earth Firster" and desert anarchist would give GOP a big chance to adapt
to the actual existing correlation of forces in America-ex : the post-modern nightmare
Trackback| 3.17.09 @ 5:19PM
The American Spectator : Edward Abbey, Conservativ..., on conservative, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Shawn Cote| 3.19.09 @ 10:00PM
Edward Abbey a conservative? The guy mocked ideologues at every turn. Consider the following aphorism from his book A VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS:
"Counterpart to the knee-jerk liberal is the new knee-pad conservative, always groveling before the rich and powerful."
'Nough said.
Skep41| 3.23.09 @ 11:45AM
Abbey was not a leftist. He hated regimentation. Just one statement in Desert Solitaire proves it; he took pride in throwing his beer cans out the window of his car thinking about all the jobs picking them up would provide to unemployed Boy Scouts in the future. Abbey is like Tolkien, a loner and a non-conformist who was taken up by the counter-culture more or less against his will. My father had a magazine in Las Vegas (Sage) that Abbey used to write for and I took painting classes at UNLV from one of his ex-wives so I knew of him as a person and not as a celebrity. He was a desert rat and desert rats do not join collectives. He was a holy man entranced by the silent beauty of the desert. He also had a sense of humor. Those qualities are not found in today's left. Yes, he fantasized about stopping the Glen Canyon Dam and was a vociferous member of the crowd who worked day and night to stop LBJ's proposed dams in the Grand Canyon (a stand which cost my father his funding for his magazine) but I dont think he wanted to be roped in to some nightmare giant megastate. He was of a breed of people who move into the empty quarters to commune with their own souls, not to create some idiotic political movement.
Cecil Hayduke| 4.3.09 @ 7:26PM
Ummm... hello-- Edward Abbey was a self identified anarchist and wrote about the subject often. His master's thesis, available online was about anarchism and the efficacy of revolutionary violence. He mentioned Kropotkin and Bakunin often in his writing and had an FBI file relating to his resistance to the draft during World War II. Hardly a conservative.
American| 4.18.09 @ 3:49AM
Please pass this Prayer Request to as many Christians and Churches as possible***(Terrorist plotting against the U.S,Taliban,Bath Party officials,those caught in the battlefield fighting against U.S troops and enemies of the U.S).When these enemies are caught by the U.S,Pray GOD makes all these enemies tell the truth about everything they know,holding nothing back when talking to U.S interigators.Pray all these enemies of the U.S are forced to tell the truth about everything they know when asked by U.S interigators,just like Demons were forced to to the truth when they were asked questions by JESUS and the apostles in the old testament.Pray GOD will not let any terrorist or supporter of terrorist lie to any American about what they believe in,Pray they are forced to tell the truth by GOD .....Many in the Liberal media pretend to be objective and unbiased,but they are not objective and they are biased.Pray GOD makes all bias liberals in the media tell the truth to their American audience always.Pray they will not have any control of themselves and won't be able to deceive the American people anymore.No more covering up,and no more hiding the truth...Liberals in the government deceive people and use the liberal media to cover for them.Pray liberals in our government will not be able to lie to,or deceive the American people anymore.Pray GOD makes all liberals in our government tell the truth to the American people,no more covering up,and no more hiding the truth.Pray they will have no control over themselves and will not be able to lie, or deceive the American people no more.Pray all leftist,secular humanist and communist will also be forced to tell the truth to all Americans when they really intend to lie and deceive Americans,Pray GOD forces them to tell the truth to the American people always .Pray no more deception,lies or propaganda by terrorist,terrorist supporters,liberals,secular humanist,leftist or communist.Pray GOD makes them tell the truth the way He makes demons tell the truth In JESUS Name.***Please pass this Prayer Request to as many Chuches and Christians as possible.***
hgjgh| 11.26.09 @ 9:42PM
Mac TOD Converter,
TOD Converter for Windows
Trackback| 12.31.09 @ 12:15AM
credit repair arizona, on credit repair arizona, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Jake| 1.18.10 @ 6:18AM
EDWARD ABBEY LIVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!
always late| 1.18.10 @ 10:27AM
Prolific author Wendell Berry had this to say about Abbey:
“The problem, evidently, is that he will not stay in line. No sooner has a label been stuck to his back by a somewhat hesitant well-wisher than he runs beneath a low limb and scrapes it off.”
late again| 1.18.10 @ 10:33AM
Direct Abbey quote:
I don't think I'm a gun fanatic. I own a couple of small-caliber weapons, but seldom take them off the wall. I gave up deer hunting fifteen years ago, when the hunters began to outnumber the deer. I am a member of the National Rifle Association, but certainly no John Bircher. I'm a liberal--and proud of it. Nevertheless, I am opposed, absolutely, to every move the state makes to restrict my right to buy, own, possess, and carry a firearm. Whether shotgun, rifle, or handgun.
Henry's War| 1.25.10 @ 2:13AM
Anybody that thinks of Ed Abbey as a Conservative is a fool and has never paid attention to his writing. You may have read it, but it must not have sunk in. Ed continuously referred to Conservatives as "sycophants to the rich and powerful." Also, he was an atheist & pro-choice. He said "Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination" and “Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.” He was anti- sport hunting. His favorite contemporary authors were Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S. Thompson. How conservative are they? Yes, he was pro-NRA and anti-immigration, but not really for the same reasons conservatives are. He was one of the freest thinks of the 20th Century and cannot be labeled "Conservative" or "Liberal." Ed was Ed. I wish he were still around today to comment.
Clutch Bearing| 3.29.10 @ 9:04PM
Truck Pulley
Damper Pulley
poptropica | 4.9.10 @ 11:38PM
I’ll have a Poptropica full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You Poptropica
Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale poptropica
You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out. poptropica
When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. poptropica
I’ll have a full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!poptropica
Getting Hercules to Help You
Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. poptropica
Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you.poptropica
. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale
sikis| 8.26.10 @ 4:32PM
I don't think I'm a gun fanatic. I own a couple of small-caliber weapons, but seldom take them off the wall. I gave up deer hunting fifteen years ago, when the hunters began to outnumber the deer. I am a member of the National Rifle Association, but certainly no John Bircher. I'm a liberal--and proud of it. Nevertheless, I am opposed, absolutely, to every move the state makes to restrict my right to buy, own, possess, and carry a firearm. Whether shotgun, rifle, or handgun.
buyutucu| 8.29.10 @ 2:52AM
Anybody that thinks of Ed Abbey as a Conservative is a fool and has never paid attention to his writing. You may have read it, but it must not have sunk in. Ed continuously referred to Conservatives as "sycophants to the rich and powerful." Also, he was an atheist & pro-choice. He said "Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination" and “Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.” He was anti- sport hunting. His favorite contemporary authors were Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S. Thompson. How conservative are they? Yes, he was pro-NRA and anti-immigration, but not really for the same reasons conservatives are. He was one of the freest thinks of the 20th Century and cannot be labeled "Conservative" or "Liberal." Ed was Ed. I wish he were still around today to comment.
Anonymous| 7.16.11 @ 12:00PM
Abbey was never a member of Earth First! at any time. He was associated with some of their ideas, and did give speeches to the group, but he never joined and was certainly not a "charter member."
Earth First! was started by an entirely separate group of people (influenced by Abbey's work, to be sure), but he was never a member.
I realize it's been almost two years, but that's two years of misinformation portrayed as truth.
iilii| 11.30.11 @ 7:07AM
Your post is short by taking the value of information and straight to the point. It has been a delight to go through. Thanks www.itunes.com/download. itunes.com is needed in order to sync your device, and also to download or sync applications or music from the App Store.