The Serpents of Paradise
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The Serpents of Paradise by Edward Abbey
From boyhood in Home, Pennsylvania, to his death in Tucson, Arizona, in 1989, this book offers - in Abbey's own words - the world of an American original. Whether writing fact or fiction, Abbey was always an autobiographer. Each of the thirty-five selections presented here, arranged chronologically by date of incident (not of publication), demonstrates that Abbey was passionately, insistently his own man. As poet-farmer Wendell Berry puts it: He remains Edward Abbey, speaking as and for himself, fighting, literally, for dear life . for the survival not only of nature, but of human nature, of culture, as only our heritage of works and hopes can define it. To speak for the voiceless was his mission. He was a virtuoso of the well-phrased thought in which style and content, symbol and meaning - each imbued with humor - come together to defy the powerful, reminding us always that preservation of wild nature is a key to a free spirit. And along with Emerson and Thoreau, Abbey, the uncompromising stylist, knew that the corruption of language follows the corruption of man. Language, Abbey wrote, seeks to transcend itself, 'to grasp the thing that has no name.'
Edward Abbey (1927-1989) was born in Home, Pennsylvania. He received graduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of New Mexico, and attended the University of Edinburgh. He worked for a time as a forest ranger and was a committed naturalist and a fierce environmentalist; such was his anger, eloquence, and action on the subject that he has become a heroic, almost mythic figure to a whole host of environmental groups and literally millions of readers.
Abbey's career as a writer spanned four decades and encompassed a variety of genres, from essays to novels to this volume, which was completed two weeks before his death. One of his early successes was the novel The Brave Cowboy, which was made into the movie Lonely Are the Brave. His 1968 collection of essays, Desert Solitaire, became a necessary text for the new environmentalists, like the group 'Earth First, ' and his rambunctious 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, a picaresque tale of environmental guerillas, which launched a national cult movement and sold over half-a-million copies. Other titles include The Journey Home, Fool's Progress, and the posthumously released Hayduke Lives!
Abbey's career as a writer spanned four decades and encompassed a variety of genres, from essays to novels to this volume, which was completed two weeks before his death. One of his early successes was the novel The Brave Cowboy, which was made into the movie Lonely Are the Brave. His 1968 collection of essays, Desert Solitaire, became a necessary text for the new environmentalists, like the group 'Earth First, ' and his rambunctious 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, a picaresque tale of environmental guerillas, which launched a national cult movement and sold over half-a-million copies. Other titles include The Journey Home, Fool's Progress, and the posthumously released Hayduke Lives!
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780805031324 |
| ISBN 10 | 0805031324 |
| Title | The Serpents of Paradise |
| Author | Edward Abbey |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Henry Holt & Company |
| Year published | 1995-01-01 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |