Abbey, Edward Paul (1927-1989)

b. Home, Pennsylvania, 29 Jan 1927; d. 14 Mar 1989.

American novelist, naturalist, and philosopher. BA in Philosophy & English, University of New Mexico, 1951. MA in Philosophy, University of New Mexico, 1956. Won a number of writing fellowships, and honorary life membership to the Western Literature Association in 1978. Declined a Creative Achievement Award, from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1987. A park ranger at Arches National Monument, Utah. Authority on desert natural history. Remembered mainly for his spirited opinions and campaigns on conservation, introducing the term ecodefense to the language, and dubbed by McMurtry as “the Thoreau of the American West.”

Bibliography & Biography:

Bishop Jr., J. Epitaph for a desert anarchist: The life and legacy of Edward Abbey. 1994. (numerous portraits).