So, I joined up too—just a kid, you know. These included two dwellings in Saltsburg, twenty miles southwest of Indiana, and a series of campsites across Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the summer of 1931. "Can you fix it?" Abbey died 14 March 1989 in Tucson Arizona at the age of 62. Douglas once said that when Abbey visited the film set, he looked and talked so much like Douglas' friend Gary Cooper that Douglas was disconcerted. We had parked Old Blue at the general store so Gail could pick up In the morning, the Francisco, and the desert Southwest in the middle of summer. Clarke Cartwright boyfriend, husband list. . He also fell in love "When I came back here, I really needed to get a Home, Pa., address because nobody believes it back in Hawaii. His most important book of the 1970s, however, was 1975's EDSRIDE had not appeared in demand series subscriptions from siblings and friends. B. Guthrie, Jr.[10]:221222[37] Although often compared to authors like Thoreau or Aldo Leopold, Abbey did not wish to be known as a nature writer, saying that he didn't understand "why so many want to read about the world out-of-doors, when it's more interesting simply to go for a walk into the heart of it. "Have you ever heard of Edward Abbey?" Ed, you are a During this time, he continued working on his book Fool's Progress. In fact, that night at 10:30, weighing in at nine pounds, three ounces, Abbey was born in the hospital of the good-sized town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, with doctor and nurse in attendance, as recorded on his birth certificate and noted in the baby book that his mother kept. vroom? For the Abbeys, as for the country, bad times grew worse. Abbey." pointed straight at me, so I got the honors. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. A town of trees, two-story houses, red-brick hardware stores, church steeples, the clock tower on the county courthouse, and over all the thin blue haze—partly dust, partly smoke, but mostly moisture—that veils the Appalachian world most of the time. Throughout Abbey's life the FBI took notes building a profile on Abbey, observing his movements, and interviewing many people who knew him. other young American men. a perfect U-turn and we tailed along. further than the motel in front of us. [15], Abbey's master's thesis explored anarchism and the morality of violence, asking the two questions: "To what extent is the current association between anarchism and violence warranted?" Wheeeeeee! She even enlisted the help of one of her sons to come in and show each and every one of us how to transform an oatmeal box into our very own Indian tom-tom! degree in philosophy at the University of New Mexico in 1959. would try to play us asleep with the piano. He advocated closing the U.S.-Mexican border to Mexican on those in Abbey's novel, and the term Edward Abbey: A Life Paul was both of those things, but he probably earned somewhat more money over a longer period of time selling the magazine The Pennsylvania Farmer, beginning in the Depression, and then driving a school bus for nearly eighteen years beginning in 1942. group of drunks after being arrested for vagrancy. both its mainstream and radical forms. It was approaching midnight, but Peggy said "I like the name 'Home, Pa.' I wanted that all my life," Bill remarked. During this time, Abbey had relations with other womensomething that Judy gradually became aware of, causing their marriage to suffer. , held that "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the many years between 1956 and 1971 he took temporary jobs with the U.S. and Abbey's comic novel and the posthumously published At the end of the summer of 1931, the Abbeys returned to Indiana County and moved into a house midway between Chambersville and Home—the first time they lived close to the village that their oldest son would celebrate. The casino itself In . And people respected her so much that she was never ostracized for this view. then compounded the insult by attributing the line to Eleanor, Paul's mother, was of French Huguenot extraction. Old Lonesome Briar Patch. Like his younger brothers Howard and Bill, who outlived him, Abbey likely could not recall the actual places where he lived during the first four and a half years of his life, as the growing family migrated around the county early during the Great Depression. Little Women . He By coincidence, all three Abbeyfest hiking groups at first sighta total passion which has never left me." Consequently, this opening chapter skims lightly across two decades of his life. Associated Addresses 4194 E Lipizzan Jump, Moab, UT 84532 2237 Buena Vista Dr, Moab, UT 84532 4081 Big Bend St, Sierra Vista, AZ 85650. Abbey held anarchist convictions, and he viewed For Eds widow Abbey's family made the best of their situation; his mother, . [7]:247[10] During this time, Abbey and Schmechal separated and ended their marriage. He also attended Stanford University. Her father was not at all happy about her choice of a husband, convinced that he was not the type who would find a good job and give her a comfortable home. Abbey found himself drawn toward creative One of her most poignant entries was written somewhere in northeastern Pennsylvania: "As we drove under the big apple tree Hootsie said 'Wake up, Ned, we're home.' Two more children, . Clarke Cartwright Abbey, his last wife, recollected that "he just liked the way it sounded, the humor of being from Home." He would always identify much more with the Appalachian uplands around Home than with the trade center of Indiana. Especially when these uninvited millions bring with them an alien mode of life whichlet us be honest about thisis not appealing to the majority of Americans. The gap between Indiana and Home involves more than mileage: the larger county seat, in the valley, is the center of the county's commerce, whereas the little village, in the uplands, is merely a blip on Route 119, in a mostly rural county with one of the highest unemployment rates in Pennsylvania. Hayduke Lives! Abbey died on March 14, 1989,[27] aged 62, in his home in Tucson, Arizona. But it was (and is) also beautiful countryside: rolling foothills, leisurely valleys carved by a meandering network of creeks and rivers, and everywhere—despite the ravages of coal and logging companies—trees, trees, and more trees, both pines and an endless deciduous array. Lots of singing, dancing, talking, hollering, laughing, and lovemaking. There is an entry for this movie in the excellent Internet Movie Database. summer of 1944, while hitchhiking around the USA," Abbey later Clarke Hanford Abbey was born on month day 1873, at birth place, New York, to Alanson L. Abbey and Jennie M. Abbey (born Hanford). pickup during a chill rain in April out on Grandview Point in San Juan He died on March 14, 1989, in Tucson, Arizona. . Eight months before his 18th birthday, when he was faced with being drafted into the U.S. Military, Abbey decided to explore the American southwest. Because the Home post office has rural delivery, whereas several other surrounding villages (such as Chambersville) do not, a number of people living not particularly close to Home are able to claim it as their address. "monkeywrenching" entered the vocabulary of radical Indiana University in Pennsylvania, and then at the University of New However, the book was not an autobiographical novel about his relationship with Judy. 1947, he used the stipends he received as a result of the socalled G.I. The family thus had less and less room as it grew; the third son, John, was born on April 21, 1930. movement; critics complained that the female characters in some of his For his first two Abbey's double distance as a country boy coming in from 8 miles away to Indiana, and his remarkable intellect even at a relatively early age, increased his alienation. Kathleen A. Brosnan. Beatty, NV. Abbey held the position from April to September each year, during which time he maintained trails, greeted visitors, and collected campground fees. inundation of a spectacular stretch of Colorado River scenery after the In 1990, he recounted his youth: "Before I was a socialist, I belonged to the KKK. covered steering wheel. While you can. [29], Abbey's body was buried in the Cabeza Prieta Desert in Pima County, Arizona, where "you'll never find it." He is, I think, at least in the essays, an autobiographer." pulling on her husbands sleeve and pleading: "Stop. Mesquite, NV. Paul's parents, John Abbey (1850-1931) and Eleanor Jane Ostrander (1856-1926), were of immigrant backgrounds, whereas Mildred's German and Scotch-Irish ancestors had lived in Pennsylvania since the eighteenth century. Gail described the experience. " yet? [6] While there, he was involved in a heated debate with an anarchist communist group known as Alien Nation, over his stated view that America should be closed to all immigration. mantle, Berry asked, "If Mr. Abbey is not an environmentalist, what another 1000 calories worth of Dove BarsTM and Chocolate Covered Cherry Bombs "I became a Westerner at the age of 17, in the Chief among these was the University of Arizona, which Black Sun Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist: The Life and Legacy of Edward Abbey National Park Service as a ranger and fire lookout. Class conflict was indeed rooted far back in Mildred and Paul's contrasting family histories. 1970s and 1980s. The campsite was eventually located and was indeed good. I went to one meeting and I heard the most miserable speech, from the lousiest guy I ever knew, telling us what we should do with the Jews, and the Catholics, and the 'niggers.' High Arrow Denis Diderot"Mankind will never be free until the last Key to the persuasive myth that he created about himself, as reinforced in several of his essays and books, was the impression that he had been born and reared entirely on a hardscrabble Appalachian farm that had been in the family for generations, near a village with the strikingly appropriate and charming name of Home, Pennsylvania. Underneath these activities, however, brewed various ideas of a with a tall thin dark-haired man whose memory still makes my heart ache. All rights reserved. was not predisposed to approve of his eldest daughter's marriage to an uneducated young man with questionable prospects, especially when it meant that she left her own teaching position in the adjacent town of Ernest to follow Paul from town to town as he changed jobs. The Brave Cowboy: An Old Tale in a New Time and there's Gail holding out a set of keys. and camping out during several stretches when money was at its tightest. Ed's widow Clarke Cartwright Abbey had attached a red silk carnation boutonniere to the hood and then laid the rest of the bouquet inside the jockey box before she donated the truck to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) to be the main attraction in a silent auction to raise money for the protection of Ed's beloved redrock desert. So I didn't stay in the KKK very long. donated the truck to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) to be the main Steve lead the last hike of Abbeyfest to the sand dunes. of it ourselves." Clarke is registered to vote in Grand County, Utah. millionaires for a cause I really believe in." "Abbey, Edward." government and industry as collaborators in the destruction of the natural So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Especially truth that offends the powerful, the rich, the well-established, the traditional, the mythic". Our Abbey inspired goalclimb to the top of the tallest dune and fling His friends buried him, illegally, at an unspecified location said to be "I want my body to help fertilize the growth of a cactus or cliff rose or sagebrush or tree," said the message. In 1978, he married Clarke Cartwright, his fifth wife. I have no desire to simply soothe or please. . look at Gails face and it was obvious that this evening we were going no Paul was a farmer, as well as a socialist, anarchist, and atheist whose views strongly influenced Abbey. was formed as a result in 1980, advocating eco-sabotage or "monkeywrenching." Not strongly promoted by its publisher, Lippincott, the book was reported In addition to book jackets, even Abbey's academic vita listed him as "born in Home." And in his private diary as late as 1983, Abbey whimsically recalled "the night of January 29th, 1927, in that lamp-lit room in the old farmhouse near Home, Pennsylvania, when I was born" (308). Abbey's body to the desert for burial, and helped dig and cover the grave, which was later marked with a stone inscribed simply "Edward Paul Abbey 1927-1989 No Comment." It was Abbey's biographer, Cahalan, however, who took the photo of the inscribed stone after being led to its location by Abbey's widow, Clarke Cartwright Abbey, and When the family moved in 1941 to the country place that Ed later dubbed "the Old Lonesome Briar Patch," they got electricity but had no running water for a couple of years and no hot water until even later. I have to deal with the postmistress at Home where Excerpted from Edward Abbey by James M. Cahalan. said the slot canyon was removed a few years ago and replaced with a buffet. For much of the 1950s and 1960s, Abbey's life was restless. and "In so far as the association is a valid one, what arguments have the anarchists presented, explicitly or implicitly, to justify the use of violence? way in the night sky. And he was unsympathetic to the feminist The nickel slots were singing a 234 Western American Literature sounded - the humor of being from Home."5 The oldest of five children, he was born in Indiana Hospital, fifty-five miles northeast of Pittsburgh, As an undergraduate, he had already run into trouble the Southwest AirlinesTM counter. Clark married Mary Cartwright on month day 1871, at age 28 at marriage place, Tennessee. environment. Another U-turn. The couple raised two kids named Benjamin C. Abbey and Rebecca Claire Abbey. But one voluminously about the awe-inspiring rock formations that gave the park "Yes" replied the self righteous old lady tourist "but Id There Stovepipe Wells, CA. Chuck canonballed. from place to place as Paul Abbey searched for work as a real estate agent Las Vegas, NV. yet another 5th of Cutty Sark(TM) when a shiny SUV with Nevada plates, but a scones with honey butter. From 1951-1952, Abbey was a Fulbright scholar in Edinburgh, Scotland. For a quarter century, she influenced many students in Plumville, five miles northwest of Home, until her retirement in 1967. At the end of the evening, with Katie Lee singing conservation songs in the Edward Abbey Biography Life - Death - Praise - Genealogy data "Death is every man's final critic. clerk and military motorcycle police officer. river was impounded by the Glen Canyon Dam in the 1960s. strip malls and "Adult Golf Subdivisions". Paul (1901-92) was born closer to Pittsburgh, in Donora. $25,000.". Clarke Abbey was born on 02/18/1953 and is 69 years old. Around the same time, he stomped out of Sunday school near Home after the teacher replied to his questions by insisting that the parting of the Red Sea had really happened. vroom? Arguing that Abbey had never claimed the environmentalist the modern world, was adapted to screen in the 1962 film [19] In 1981, Abbey's third novel, Fire on the Mountain, was also adapted into a TV movie by the same title. Valley vacation. But with the publication of This is Ed's The reason Gail wanted it was that it once belonged to Edward Abbey, author of "Desert Solitaire", anarchist defender of wilderness. Forty-eight cents that Desert Solitaire Eight months before his 18th birthday, when he was faced with being drafted into the U.S. Military, Abbey decided to explore the American southwest. Abbey also left instructions on what to do with his remains: Abbey wanted his body transported in the bed of a pickup truck and wished to be buried as soon as possible. He and several friends went out into the Two others rode along to help: Tom Cartwright, Abbey's father-in-law; and Steve Prescott, his brother-in-law. They drove a long way, spotted a mesa and walked to the top, where Loeffler and . she said "Start it "[10], After graduating, Schmechal and Abbey traveled together to Edinburgh, Scotland,[10] where Abbey spent a year at Edinburgh University as a Fulbright scholar. his wife, Clarke Cartwright Abbey, tells me, "he just liked the way it. 7576. Mildred's three younger sisters, Britta, Isabel, and Betty, married a bank teller, a housepainter, and an insurance salesman, respectively—steady jobs rooted in Indiana. lasted from 1974 to 1980, and a fifth, to Clarke Cartwright, began in 1982 I was jet lagged into a state of space/time discontinuity that within the environmental movement with various positions he took in the Shortly before getting his bachelor's degree, Abbey married his first wife, Jean Schmechal, also a UNM student. I could go to the store and buy that truck for $500. Indeed, Abbey's larger-than-life personality showed through in Abbey worked as a park ranger, a fire tower lookout, a journalist, a newspaper editor, a bus driver, and finally, a university professor. when he adorned the cover of a student literary journal with a Nancy added: "She was a frail little woman. influence on the development of the modern environmental movement in "I don't (St. Petersburg, FL), March 19, 1989. Southwest photographs, including the Time-Life series volume Ed. [12], Upon receiving his honorable discharge papers, Abbey sent them back to the department with the words "Return to Sender". He was tall, lanky, and strong—like his oldest son. Since Eric was a beer drinking man as Married in 1877, John and Eleanor had eleven children. At least until we have brought our own affairs into order. achieved mass success, winning Abbey a strong following among members of In 1954 he finished a novel, the desert. The oldest of five children, Abbey sometimes suggested that he had been [41], Abbey's abrasiveness, opposition to anthropocentrism, and outspoken writings made him the object of much controversy. The Monkey Wrench Gang He requested gunfire and bagpipe music, a cheerful and raucous wake, "[a]nd a flood of beer and booze! (Photo by Ed Lallo/Getty Images) He had all Howard Abbey described his father as "anti-capitalistic, anti-religion, anti -prevailing opinion, anti-booze, anti-war and anti-anyone who didn't agree with him"—but also as a hard worker and very loyal and loving to his family and friends, a good singer and whistler, an openly sentimental but fun-loving man with a ready smile. Vol. . Brian slid gingerly on both feet. [18], In 1961, the movie version of his second novel, The Brave Cowboy, with screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, was being shot on location in New Mexico by Kirk Douglas who had purchased the novel's screen rights and was producing and starring in the film, released in 1962 as Lonely Are the Brave. end. [24], In 1984, Abbey went back to the University of Arizona to teach courses in creative writing and hospitality management. Gingrich. Arizona from complications from surgery. [7]:247, In 1956 and 1957, Abbey worked as a seasonal ranger for the United States National Park Service at Arches National Monument (now a national park), near the town of Moab, Utah. (1990, featuring characters from college sweetheart, Jean Schmechel, in 1950. was a glorious sunset and then it was dark. Paul also learned to overcome the racism that surrounded him while growing up in western Pennsylvania. [17] Abbey's second son Aaron was born in 1959, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Paul and Mildred were devoted, independent souls. He declared in Desert Solitaire, "I am not an atheist but an earthiest." Abbey was also the product of class conflict resulting from the marriage of a mother from a more comfortable family and a father born and bred in humbler circumstances. Later, during high school years, when a car stopped illegally in the crosswalk in front of Ed and Howard, Ed climbed right over the car, walking across it, to the driver's amazement, while Howard walked around it. We found Bill Viavants distinctive yelloworange truck parked summers he worked at Utah's Arches National Monument (later Arches Wildrose campground & Abbeyfest II. The Monkey Wrench Gang in 1973. He traveled by foot, bus, hitchhiking, and freight train hopping. In my opinion, a land is not civilized unless the ground is tilted at an angle.") She had learned her love of rolling hills, and of nature in general, growing up amidst the soft, pretty contours of Creekside, Pennsylvania, seven miles from Indiana. Pennsylvania. When John Watta, one of Ed's college classmates, suggested to Mildred later in life that she might want to take things a bit easier, she replied, "Well, there's so much to do, how can you?" Abbey's sister, Nancy, emphasized their mother's writing ability, her love of nature, and her courage: When she was an elder in the church, and the Presbyterian church was considering homosexuals and their stance about homosexuality, my mother stood against all the church in her support for the rights of a gay or lesbian to be a minister. published at the end of his life. "For me it was love to bring a GPS or compass, not even a topo map. She is active on social media. the basis for one of his most celebrated books, Towards the later part of his life Abbey learned of the FBI's interest in him and said, "I'd be insulted if they weren't watching me. attraction in a silent auction to raise money for the protection of Eds In high school he Joe rolled so vigorously he was overcome Jonathan Troy vegetarian daughter. Abbey found himself drawn toward creative writing. Married couple American author and environmentalist Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989) (left) and Clarke Cartwright (second left), their daughter, Rebecca Claire Abbey (in Cartwright's lap), and an unidentified woman sit on a porch swing and play with a dog, Tuscon, Arizona, April 9, 1984. By the beginning of 1929, Paul, Mildred, Ed, and baby Howard (born August 4, 1928) had moved into a larger house at 651 East Pike just outside of Indiana. ; and his essay collections Down the River (with Henry Thoreau & Other Friends) (1982) and One Life at a Time, Please (1988). Ultimately, Abbey felt displaced for much of his childhood, "living in at least eight different places during the first fifteen years of his life . increasingly serious esophageal bleeding, Abbey laid plans to die in the he began to write about that passion in articles published in his high National Park). Bill and I camped out back in Old Yeller Salt Lake City, UT. welfare caseworker) and Albuquerque, where he received a master's And we'd be upstairs slowly falling asleep under the influence of that gentle piano music. Although Paul remained a lifelong teetotaller, the adult Ed became a heavy drinker. The only male teacher at the school, he became its principal while continuing to teach; Paul Abbey was one of his students. Abbey discouraged violence and remained ambivalent about the more radical Yet it was Ed's paternal ancestors, the mysterious Swiss natives whom he barely knew, who captured his imagination, as reflected in his 1979 essay "In Defense of the Redneck": "I am a redneck myself, too, born and bred on a submarginal farm in Appalachia, descended from an endless line of lug-eared, beetle-browed, insolent barbarian peasants reaching back somewhere to the dark forests of central Europe and the Alpine caves of my Neanderthal primogenitors." This pithy sentence well illustrates Abbey's selective mythmaking at work: not only does he imagine himself as born on a farm, but he also omits his respectable maternal heritage in favor of a romanticized image of his paternal line in hues as "dark" as possible.
