Edward Abbey

Ed Abbey is perhaps the best-known modern southwestern writer. Author of twenty novels and essays, his name has become synonymous with the deserts of the Southwest and with radical environmentalism. Called "the Thoreau of the American West," he is at once representative and atypical of the writers covered here. Abbey's work veers from passionate paeans to the earth to strident demands for its protection. The deserts and mountains of the Southwest, which are at the core of Abbey's writing, are living elements in the works of nearly all the authors assembled here.

Click here to hear an excerpt on Ed Abbey from Writing the Southwest.

Listen to the half-hour documentary on Edward Abbey by David Dunaway below: