Reviews

Abbey (1944-89; The Monkey Wrench Gang) has written decades worth of famous postcards, essays, articles, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His outspokenness on topics like liberty vs. technology have made him the subject of much controversy. This chronological collection, edited by Petersen (editor, Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey) with a foreword by Terry Tempest Williams (environmental humanities, Univ. of Utah; The Open Space of Democracy), covers 40 years of Abbey's remarkable transmissions on topics ranging over nature, trophy hunting, police helicopters, and wilderness conservation. Petersen's intent with this book is to demonstrate the incohesiveness of Abbey's philosophical postcard observations, and the random selection of pieces illustrates the value he placed on correspondence. In one of his essays, Abbey states that his books all share the common theme of human freedom in an industrial society and that wilderness is a means toward that end. Abbey was a strong advocate for wildness preservation and ecological protection, and his legacy of writing on this subject is still popular today. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries.-Susan McClellan, Avalon P.L., Pittsburgh Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.