Book Description
The New West of Edward Abbey is the first book-length study assessing the literary career of this major contemporary American author. In her perceptive examination, Ann Ronald asserts that Edward Abbey's role as social commentator and environmental activist is complemented by his guise as a writer of romance--one who reconceives the contemporary world in order to envision a better one. In examining the philosophy behind Abbey's prose, Ronald contends that Abbey's approach is subtle as well as vociferous in calling for a properly managed society that can exist in equilibrium with the bulldozers of the modern-day world. In a new chapter, Ronald celebrates Abbey's legacy of prose and the authored persona with which he charmed his readers and recalls her own pleasures as a reader of his work. In his new afterword, Scott Slovic offers an assessment of Abbey's later works, including Hayduke Lives!, A Fool's Progress, Earth Apples, and journal selections published posthumously as Confessions of a Barbarian. The first edition of The New West of Edward Abbey helped draw the attention of an entire generation of students, teachers, and literary scholars to Abbey's achievement as a writer. The new edition will once again serve as a central resource for anyone studying Abbey.


About the Author
Ann Ronald is a professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the editor of Words for the Wild and the co-author of Earthtones: A Nevada Album, published by the University of Nevada Press.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The New West of Edward Abbey is the first book-length study assessing the literary career of this major contemporary American author. In her perceptive examination, Ann Ronald asserts that Edward Abbey's role as social commentator and environmental activist is complemented by his guise as a writer of romance one who reconceives the contemporary world in order to envision a better one. In examining the philosophy behind Abbey's prose, Ronald contends that Abbey's approach is subtle as well as vociferous in calling for a properly managed society that can exist in equilibrium with the bulldozers of the modern-day world.

In a new chapter, Ronald celebrates Abbey's legacy of prose and the authored persona with which he charmed his readers and recalls her own pleasures as a reader of his work. In his new afterword, Scott Slovic offers an assessment of Abbey's later works, including Hayduke Lives!, A Fool's Progress, Earth Apples, and journal selections published posthumously as Confessions of a Barbarian.

The first edition of The New West of Edward Abbey helped draw the attention of an entire generation of students, teachers, and literary scholars to Abbey's achievement as a writer. The new edition will once again serve as a central resource for anyone studying Abbey.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Sierra Club Yodeler

Ronald reviews Abbey's writings thoroughly, focusing on his explication of the American West as a place of beauty, strangeness and power; a place man is determined to exploit and often destroys. All his works contain a plea for us to protect our wilderness, because it does not belong to us, and by destroying it we will finally ruin ourselves.

ACCREDITATION