Abbey, Edward

Abbey, Edward

(1927–89) author, conservationist; born in Home, Pa. Raised on a Pennsylvania farm, he moved permanently to the Southwest in 1947. He published his first book, the novel Jonathan Troy, in 1954. In Desert Solitaire (1968), an account of his years as a part-time ranger in the Arches National Monument, Utah, he called for, among other things, a ban on motor vehicles in wilderness preserves. The Monkey Wrench Gang (1976), a novel about a gang of ecological saboteurs, was a bestseller and made him a cult hero; although he disavowed such extremists who actually engaged in sabotage on behalf of ecological goals, he became increasingly quirky in his writings and public statements.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.