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Title: Edward Abbey: A Life by James M. Cahalan ISBN: 0-8165-1906-4 Publisher: University of Arizona Press Pub. Date: September, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.22 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A very thorough, fair, and well-written biography!
Comment: I love how this book taught me so many things about Abbey's life that I never knew before, and how he brings in Abbey's voice by quoting him so effectively. It's an important book because it digs beneath the myth of "Cactus Ed" to the real man and the working writer, and it makes me want to go back and reread Abbey's books. Another good feature is how Cahalan makes Abbey part of his broader historical scene by bringing in related historical events, not only in environmental history but also Vietnam and other events that many might not know also interested and influenced Abbey. This was fun to read! Both Abbey fans and readers new to him will like this book.
Rating: 2
Summary: Comprehensive to a Fault
Comment: As mentioned in an earlier review this book features a comprehensive Edward Abbey bibliography. The problem is that the author has read all of these books and has decided to include every single detail about Abbey's life, no matter how insignificant. The problem is that Cahalan seems to know a lot about Abbey without actually KNOWING anything about Edward Abbey. The result is copious run-on sentences and thirty page chapters about unimportant periods of Abbey's life. This book quickly becomes laborious to read due to these faults and the excessive amount of gratuitous quotes. It is not for the casual Abbey fan. One could argue that the positive reviews are all probably from hard core Abbey fanatics while the lukewarm ones are from those who do not practice fanatical devotion to the cult of Cactus Ed. It delivers on its promise to destroy the myths about Cactus Ed. The problem is that once you learn about Abbey's character (or profound lack of character) you long for the myth of Cactus Ed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best book yet on Abbey
Comment: This book is the best among the several I've read on Abbey. It contains by far the most details about his life in both its glories and its agonies, and Abbey's voice rings through loud and clear all the way through, partly because Cahalan interweaves plenty of just the right quotations from Abbey's writings, both published and unpublished. It's also the only book I've read that gets the facts right: from where he was born (which WASN'T Home, Pa.), where he lived (many places, but never Oracle); who his many friends, wives, and lovers were; what he actually did and thought; and much, much more. This author has the guts to tell Abbey's whole story, not just paint a picture, at the same time that the cover and inside photographs are great. It separates the real Abbey from the mythical one, but somehow the actual Abbey--warts and all--is even more impressive than the mythical one perpetuated by other authors, including Abbey himself. The big chronological bibliography of all of Abbey's writings is by itself worth the price of this book (even if the book itself weren't also more than worth it); such a bibliography has never before been published. I enjoyed this book from cover to cover, and learned a lot from it.
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Title: Adventures With Ed: A Portrait of Abbey by Jack Loeffler ISBN: 0826323871 Publisher: University of New Mexico Press Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey ISBN: 0345326490 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 January, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West by Edward Abbey, Jim Stiles ISBN: 0452265622 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Abbey's Road: Take the Other by Edward Abbey ISBN: 0452265649 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Beyond the Wall : Essays from the Outside by Edward Abbey ISBN: 0805008209 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 April, 1984 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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