Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
    Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
    Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
    Audiobook11 hours

    Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness

    Written by Edward Abbey

    Narrated by Michael Kramer

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey's Road, and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures the essence of his life during three seasons as a park ranger in southeastern Utah. This is a rare view of a quest to experience nature in its purest form-the silence, the struggle, the overwhelming beauty. But this is also the gripping, anguished cry of a man of character who challenges the growing exploitation of the wilderness by oil and mining interests, as well as by the tourist industry.Abbey's observations and challenges remain as relevant now as the day he wrote them. Today, Desert Solitaire asks if any of our incalculable natural treasures can be saved before the bulldozers strike again.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateDec 19, 2011
    ISBN9781452675763
    Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
    Author

    Edward Abbey

    <p>Edward Abbey spent most of his life in the American Southwest. He was the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the celebrated <em>Desert Solitaire</em>, which decried the waste of America’s wilderness, and the novel <em>The Monkey Wrench Gang</em>, the title of which is still in use today to describe groups that purposefully sabotage projects and entities that degrade the environment. Abbey was also one of the country’s foremost defenders of the natural environment. He died in 1989.</p>

    More audiobooks from Edward Abbey

    Related to Desert Solitaire

    Related audiobooks

    Earth Sciences For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West

      Dec 27, 2019

      This list of must-read crime titles forms part of a lesser-known West, an awesomely weird landscape in which the line between Good and Evil shimmers like a mirage. The post Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West appeared first on The Mill

      4 min read

    • Article

      Charlie Walker

      May 5, 2022

      Charlie Walker
      3 min read

    • Article

      Erratica

      Mar 1, 2020

      There’s a term that’s been circulating in the spheres of poetry I like: geopoetics. I’ve heard it for several years, and have always loved it, despite never fully grasping its meaning. I figure it has to mean something beyond simply “poems about rock

      19 min read

    • Article

      Now I Lay Me

      Sep 9, 2021

      Now I Lay Me
      13 min read

    • Article

      Geoff Nicholson

      Dec 7, 2023

      Geoff Nicholson
      3 min read

    • Article

      On Mountains And Moments

      May 26, 2023

      On Mountains And Moments
      7 min read

    • Article

      Topos. Graphein.

      Sep 27, 2021

      Topos. Graphein.
      6 min read

    • Article

      Crossing the Border

      Sep 19, 2019

      Crossing the Border
      7 min read

    • Article

      BOOKS & MUSIC

      Sep 16, 2019

      Freelance author and editor Grahame McLeod first travelled to Botswana in 1973 as an exploration geologist. He later worked there as a teacher and a textbook writer, gaining citizenship in 2009. Makgadikgadi Pans – A traveller’s guide to the salt fla

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Boatman And The Bear

      May 27, 2022

      The Boatman And The Bear
      9 min read

    • Article

      All This Blood and Love

      Nov 22, 2017

      All This Blood and Love
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Drifter

      Apr 1, 2021

      The Drifter
      3 min read

    • Article

      Risk And Reward

      Feb 18, 2022

      Risk And Reward
      6 min read

    • Article

      Following The Flow

      Aug 31, 2019

      Following The Flow
      11 min read

    • Article

      Komorebi

      Nov 6, 2023

      Komorebi
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Place Called Home

      May 1, 2021

      A Place Called Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Waking Dream

      Sep 19, 2019

      A Waking Dream
      7 min read

    • Article

      A bloody Long Run

      Nov 28, 2022

      A bloody Long Run
      15 min read

    • Article

      The Eternal Adventure

      Jun 29, 2021

      The Eternal Adventure
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Desert Solitaire

    4.5/5

    119 ratings39 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Shortly after my daughter was born, my in-laws came to visit us in California. While there, they drove to Yosemite National Park for a few days. When they got back, my spouse asked them what they'd seen while they were there. "Everything," his dad replied. What they meant, of course, was everything they could see within a fifty-yard walk from their car.It turns out my in-laws are just the kind of national park tourists Abbey pities and despises. "So long as they are unwilling to crawl out of their cars they will not discover the treasures of the national parks and will never escape the stress and turmoil of those urban-suburban complexes which they had hoped, presumably, to leave behind for a while." (52)Abbey opines in 1968 that automobiles are ruining the parks by necessitating the construction of roads and parking lots and ruining the experience for the visitors by keeping them encapsulated in steel and separated from the very experiences they've come to experience. He proposes a solution: ban automobiles from the parks. He has it all planned out. At the park entrance, people will park their cars and be equipped with bicycles, free of charge, for their use while in the park. All of their camping supplies will be waiting for them at their campsite, brought out by the Park Service while the visitors explore the park on their bicycles. There, too, will be "concessioners waiting, ready to supply whatever needs might have been overlooked, or to furnish rooms and meals for those who don't want to camp out." (53) As someone who has both envied and feared for the safety of bicyclists on park roads, this sounds like an excellent idea to me. Biking is much safer when one isn't sharing the road with cars.Abbey anticipates problems with his plan (and is especially uninterested in finding ways to accommodate the elderly, those with mobility issues, and children), but his confidence in the adventurous spirit of the average American allows him to dismiss these concerns quickly:"Critics of my program will argue that it is too late for such a radical reformation of a people's approach to the out-of-doors, that the pattern is too deeply set, and that the majority of Americans would not be willing to emerge from the familiar luxury of their automobiles, even briefly, to try the little known and problematic advantages of the bicycle, the saddle horse, and the footpath. This might be so; but how can we be sure unless we attempt the experiment? I, for one, suspect that millions of our citizens, especially the young, are yearning for adventure, difficulty, challenge---they will respond with enthusiasm." (56)I look at the interest of GenXers and Millennials in homemade bread and home-fermented foods, LPs, manual typewriters, instant cameras, and dragging logs and running obstacle courses through the mud for exercise, and I suspect Abbey's right. There's something tactile we're missing in our touch-screen, climate-controlled, supermarket lives that we're trying to recapture by going back to a pre-digital time. Things are too easy here, and yet so full of stress and artificiality, and I suspect that a "yearning for adventure, difficulty, challenge"---for things that are real---is part of this trend for the retro.And even my Boomer in-laws have changed over the twelve years since that Yosemite visit. They began bicycling, and with a cyclist's eyes, they began to see their condo complex for what it is: an island accessible only by automobile. Once they'd experienced the freedom and slower pace and satisfying physical challenge of getting about by bicycle, this arrangement was no longer tenable; they sold their condo and moved to a more bikeable location. If after more than six decades of life they can discover the wonders of the world outside of their cars, perhaps most of the population of the U.S. could do the same, if given a chance.But the chips are stacked against this kind of change. Our country is set up for cars. We have interstates rather than bike lanes, strip malls instead of sidewalks. Those of us who wish to get around without our cars risk our lives; I don't blame those who choose not to take this risk at the same time that I resent them for not pushing for changes that would make biking and walking---outside of a gym---less risky.There's also the difficulty of time. Our jobs and our need for possessions and housing and health insurance and college tuition for our children puts our employers in a position of power. We can't even get paid time off to care for our newborns; how could we take the time necessary to explore without our cars? To cycle through even a smaller park like Joshua Tree National Park would take far longer than exploring the park by car, driving to a trailhead and hiking for the day and then driving back out to stay at a hotel or Airbnb. Abbey writes, "We are preoccupied with time. If we could learn to love space as deeply as we are now obsessed with time, we might discover a new meaning in the phrase to live like men" (emphasis in the original). (58) This is probably true, but it's also easier said than done. Even those of us lucky enough to have paid vacation don't often have enough of it---or the freedom to untether ourselves from our jobs even while on vacation---to take the time to travel slower and experience the places we're visiting without the steel shell surrounding us. We get the Instagram post and then it's time to leave so we can get back to the suburbs and continue our lives of quiet desperation.This is a book of pull and push. Abbey loves the desert, but even he feels the pull of civilization, the company of people, the bustle of the metropolis. Even with all of his rhetoric, Abbey recognizes that the lure of the desert, the lure of the wild is something that's not necessarily for the desert itself:"A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. I may never in my life get to Alaska, but I am grateful that it's there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis." (129)Knowing the wilderness is out there may be enough to keep us going, even in our constructed world. But, as Abbey worries again and again throughout this book, there's a real danger of these wild spaces being lost to development. Areas of wilderness face continuous dangers, including both the road- and dam-building against which Abbey primarily rails and the current dangers of development for the purposes of resource extraction in places like Bears Ears National Monument and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We as a culture keep pushing for growth in the form of an ever-increasing GDP, but what happens to us if this growth is at the expense of those wild spaces that provide us with the possibility of escape (even putting aside the ecological impacts that are already affecting us)?About the developers' plan to put in dams and divert water from desert waterways to population centers: "What for? 'In anticipation of future needs, in order to provide for the continued industrial and population growth of the Southwest.' And in such an answer we see that it's only the old numbers game again, the monomania of small and very simple minds in the grip of an obsession. They cannot see that growth for the sake of growth is cancerous madness, that Phoenix and Albuquerque will not be better cities to live in when their populations are doubled again and again. They would never understand that an economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human." (127)This is something I've never quite understood. What's wrong with leaving areas to develop only as the resources in that area allow? If an area can only grow to a point of homeostasis with the environment, what's the problem if those who live there are healthy and happy, fulfilled and living their best lives? Why the need for constant growth? What would happen if we chose to define "growth" as spiritual growth, intellectual growth, emotional growth rather than only in terms of population and finance? Finance is constructed, abstract. It will not feed our souls or our bodies. It won't protect us from our own mortality; it will only distract us from life.It comes back to that need for the real that's pulling at hipsters and housewives (and hipster housewives) of the post-Boomer generations. And if we're seeking reality, Abbey asserts, the desert has what we're looking for."Under the desert sun, in that dogmatic clarity, the fables of theology and the myths of classical philosophy dissolve like mist. The air is clean, the rock cuts cruelly into flesh; shatter the rock and the odor of flint rises to your nostrils, bitter and sharp. Whirlwinds dance across the salt flats, a pillar of dust by day; the thorn bush breaks into flame at night. What does it mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime." (194)This book is a love letter to the desert and a preemptive farewell to a wilderness that is not-so-slowly being consumed. I read it and I want to get in my car and drive to the desert, park my car and walk until night then camp under the stars (perhaps on a cot because scorpions and snakes and tarantulas are a little too real for me). This book gives me a bittersweet sort of hope that our culture might find a balance before all of the wild places are lost and there's nowhere left for escape.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Abbey's classic environmental work, which established him as a leader in the growing environmental movement. Abbey tells stories and reminisces about his days as a ranger in the modern American west, and rails against a society that isn't able to appreciate the world as we find it, but must bend it and twist it out of shape.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A love letter to the Utah desert, with some useful recommendations on wilderness policy thrown as well. I loved his musings on being able to see the snowy mountains while baking on the red sands. His eventual and inevitable climb is my favorite passage.
    • 3/5
      This was a gift from my friend Kim to give me a glimpse into some of the space she comes from. I enjoyed reading it and will reread it when I finally make it out to Moab. I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates the beauty of desert landscape.
    • 5/5
      Honestly, How can you really "rate" a book of this nature? I came in with no preconceptions, and read it in a flurry over a couple of days... as a Canadian with little experience with really hot places, I was pulled in and, ironically (or not) felt the urge to go on my own Odyssey to the Arctic. So, Solitaire went far beyond its mandate -- if it ever had one-- and moved a complete stranger. In my books, that is a literary success.
    • 5/5
      A modern classic; Abbey describes himself as "not an atheist but an eartheist."
    • 5/5
      First read: Desert Solitaire is one of those books that I've seen a million times---on other people's bookshelves, at gift shops in national parks, at library sales---but that I've never gotten around to buying or reading. When it arrived in an armchair travel bookbox and after I recently read The Secret Life of Cowboys, somehow I was "spurred" toward reading this book. And these two books (Secret Life and Desert Solitaire), in truth, have a lot in common: a common setting, the American West, and a common narrator, fellows burned out on life in the city and itching for, well, something the West has to offer. Edward Abbey is a surprising guy, happy in his summer job as a ranger at Arches National Monument in Utah, relaxing in the outdoors, ranting a bit about the encroachment of cars upon the wilderness, and then, suddenly, out of nowhere, picking up a rock, flinging it at a rabbit, and killing it (literally). I never knew what this fellow was going to do next. Abbey seemed to be an odd mixture of tree hugger and Texas good ol' boy (though he was originally from Pennsylvania, he'd have fit right in here). Every page, every paragraph, is full of Abbey's opinions and philosophizing, but it makes for a good read. Favorite Quote: (from the Introduction) "It will be objected that the book deals too much with mere appearances, with the surface of things, and fails to engage and reveal the patterns of unifying relationships which form the true underlying reality of existence. Here I must confess that I know nothing whatever about true underlying reality, having never met any."Second Read:A reread. I had to find and read this book for a very silly reason. Here’s the story: I found a green hiking hat that I had to buy when I was in Utah. On the hat were three pictures with labels: Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Arches. We went physically to Zion and Bryce while we were in Utah, with no time for other stops, so I had to visit Arches through a book. Thus, Desert Solitaire.I liked it even better than I did last time. I was surprised to see Abbey as such a rebel; I didn’t remember that.
    • 5/5
      If you have ever read "Walden Pond" by Throeau you need to read this book. Desert Solitaire celebrates nature in a modern world, shares stories of man communing with nature as an equal, and opens the readers eyes to environmental issues. Nature lovers will fall in love with this book.
    • 4/5
      Abbey was a desert nature lover and outspoken curmudgeon on most other topics. He had an M.S. in philosophy and, like Thoreau, lots of time to explore and think during several years working in the deserts of the American Southwest. Some may take offense at his sarcastic wit, and while he shows his hypocritical side on occasion, Abbey is nevertheless a fierce opponent of overpopulation and recreational tourism that causes governmental destruction of our natural resources. While certainly written with more 'spice' than Leopold, speaking out on such diverse topics as organized religion and 'monopoly capitalism,' Abbey gives us a biological and philosophical tour of some of the most remote, beautiful and dangerous land in the U.S.
    • 5/5
      One of my favourite books.
    • 5/5
      Very good book, great stories within. I liked this book so much that I’ve decided to buy a hard copy for my niece, who will probably never even crack it open, too busy brooding and listening to her savage rap snaps to visit a national park, let alone pick up a book to read about one. But it speaks volumes that I am willing to throw away my money, buying a chance that she will become curious enough to entertain herself, enlighten her mind and engage, perhaps, in the beauty of this delightful book.
    • 4/5
      It contains great vivid imagery of the southwest desert and arches national monument. The narrator is quite a character.
    • 4/5
      The author must have been an English major: in the first thirty pages, I encounter the following words new to me: demesne, gelid, pismires, and usufructuary. A strong condemnation of industrial tourism in "the most beautiful place on earth"--Arches National Monument in 1967.
    • 5/5
      This is one of those books I read back in the 1970s that was interesting to revisit as my understanding of the issues of the environment, ecology, and conservation have evolved.
    • 5/5
      A "must read" for anybody who loves the desert, hiking, and/or Moab. Alert to animal lovers: Abbey starts his book off with a harsh incident involving a furry friend. It may offend some, but I recommend pressing on with his story--I think you'll be glad you did.
    • 5/5
      Abbey's classic environmental work, which established him as a leader in the growing environmental movement. Abbey tells stories and reminisces about his days as a ranger in the modern American west, and rails against a society that isn't able to appreciate the world as we find it, but must bend it and twist it out of shape.
    • 5/5
      The curmudgeonly conservationist and self-proclaimed "eartheist" writes about degradation of national parks, lyrical and sometimes deadly times in the Utah desert and great descriptions of some of the eccentric desert folk.
    • 2/5
      Had to read this one for a book group meeting tomorrow night. It's Abbey's memoir about working as a park ranger at the Arches National Park near Moab, Utah during the 1950s and 1960s. I had mixed feelings about the book. I loved the parts where he described the beauty of connecting with the wilderness. I didn't love his screeds on how we're messing everything up. It's not even so much that I disagree with him as it is his holier than thou tone. Still, it was an interesting glimpse into a part of our country that is even now disappearing, not because of the effects of nature, but because of man's idea of progress.
    • 4/5
      "Desert Solitaire" published in 1968 is a nonfiction work by Edward Abbey mainly describing his work as a seasonal Park Ranger at Arches National Park in Utah in the 1950's. It is considered a classic in environmental literature and one of the best books describing the deserts of the southwest. He can wax poetically about the idea of wilderness and the silence of the desert but he is a hell of a story teller as he describes some of the misadventures of the uranium miners and ranchers in the desert and some of his own adventures in the nearby Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon. He lives alone but pines for the company of a "good friendly woman."Abbey was not very politically correct and lashes out in all directions. He bashes all the major religions of world including atheism. He is a very lively writer. He is considered anarchists. He is a fellow graduate of the University of New Mexico. He was the editor on the school newspaper until he posted a quotation from Louisa May Alcott, "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Whereupon he was fired.I give this book four stars out of five. I bought it for a quarter at the Central Library. It is a quite yellowed paperback. If you want it, you can have it. Just let me know.
    • 1/5
      I realize this won't be the most helpful review, but I couldn't get over the fact a ranger kills an animal just to see if he could survive in the wild and then rants about other peoples' lack of respect for the wilderness. He also irritated me with his arrogance about believing that he had solved some social issues through extreme means. I wish I could see beyond these things, but I just couldn't.
    • 1/5
      I only got through half of this one. Was Abbey trying to write about his experiences at Arches, tell historical cowboy stories, or write a treatise on the evils of developing national parks? I couldn’t tell. I got bored.
    • 4/5
      Edward Abbey is basically the sober version of Hunter S. Thompson. However, instead of drug expertise and counter-culture, Abbey understands the recreational park system and the state of Native Americans in the 1960's. He knows a great deal about the environment and his appreciation for it is powerful. Abbey's lust for life is enviable and his sense of humor is my favorite thing about this book. Abbey lives the life of a true outsider and is one of the most authentic authors I have come across. yes, he definitely does get "sanctimonious about wilderness" but I found the majority of what he said meaningful but mostly hilarious, because he admits how outlandish some of his claims are. you gotta remember, this guy was out their living it.
    • 5/5
      Just finished reading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. I like to think of them as essays by a curmudgeon who truly celebrated the wild and being out in it. Alone but hardly lonely, here was a man who cared deeply for our wildest places and wrote about them as he lived in them: passionately. A true conservationist, we could all learn from him and his desire to keep the natural places as they are. Keep the motorized vehicles to a minimum in National Parks. Keep the paved roads out. Get out of our refrigerated boxes and breathe the fresh air and have a look around! Walk and actually see the beauty that surrounds you!Whether he was writing about rafting down the Colorado River before it changes forever due to the addition of another dam, or his "ownership" of the arches at the end of his first summer as a park ranger at Arches National Monument, you feel every bit of his fierce desire to protect the land coming through in every word. You feel his kinship with every tree, rock and tumbleweed that he comes across, every snake he brings into his camper to take care of the mouse population. I am grateful for his words, his many pilgrimages, his anger and his willingness to show it. It is the fierce protectors who are the guardians and stewards of this beautiful land. He is one minute cranky environmentalist and the next touching wordsmith. "If no one is looking for you write your will in the sand and let the wind carry your words and signature east to the borders of Colorado and south to the pillars of Monument Valley - someday, never fear, your bare elegant bones will be discovered and wondered and marveled at." This is a great collection of essays which I recommend. I look forward to reading more of his work. 4.5/5 stars on LT.
    • 5/5
      I pick up this book again every 3-5 years for re-reading, and it never fails to disappoint. Wry, heart-felt, and imbued with the weathered, dry sensibility that is often picked up by those that spend any substantial time in the desert, it is a classic and should be read by all Americans before the environment that is described is eaten by developers, resource extractors, and nuclear waste repository proponents.
    • 5/5
      What a beautiful, comforting read this was. A new favourite.
    • 5/5
      I read this as I was exploring and discovering Arches Nat'l Park. What a great novel. I read it again and again.
    • 3/5
      I think they will let me stay in Moab now. I now have read the patron saint of Moab, Edward Abbey. Actually I read The Monkeywrench Gang a long time ago, but Desert Solitaire is about Arches, and the desert area around here.It is interesting to read something that you love and empathize with half of and strongly disagree with the other half. I love the desert, I always have. I love the red rock, the sun (though I burn horribly), the lack of people. When I was in college we came down all the time. It is one of the reasons I love living here. Just walking out my door is beautiful.But I also think that a human presence in the desert doesn't automatically ruin it. And though Abbey tries very hard to refute the inspirational feelings the landscape inspires, I welcome and cherish those thoughts. I once read something, can't remember where, that there is a reason the world's great religions came from the desert. The solitude, the clarity of the desert gives your mind an opportunity to hear all that is to faint to hear through the radio, kids, bills and worries of the indoors.Abbey was a ranger in Arches before the paved road comes through. He is unhappy about the change and equates one road into Arches with the eventual paving over of all the beauty in the west. He also wrote this book as Glen Canyon Dam was being built and Glen Canyon being drowned. I think he would be appalled about a lot of the changes, but perhaps relieved that Canyonlands, at least is still mostly accessible only on foot. The book is a lament for what he thought would soon be gone forever. It is still here, perhaps harder to find, but solitude is still possible in the desert and I love it.
    • 5/5
      A classic by the one of the giants of environmental writing. Irreverent, funny, and beautifully written. Look for a hilarious essay on his stint with the National Park Service.
    • 5/5
      In this fascinating ecological memoir/rant, Abbey takes us along during his time as a park ranger in the heart of Utah's harsh red rock landscape to expose its beauty and contradictions. While some things have changed since the book's publication in 1968, the majority of Abbey's thoughts and experiences remain timeless. A true classic of environmental nonfiction.
    • 2/5
      What starts out as a grumpy guy out west telling about his love of the desert turns quickly into a reclusive narcissist that hates people yearning to die alone in the desert, which by then the reader is glad to let him do. Even with the narration of bitterness, he can create a connection to the wild. My favorite parts were his description of death by dehydration, escaping quicksand, and his encounter with a legendary horse.