Individuality and Community in Desert Solitaire

Abstract

Edward Abbey’s 1968 literary memoir Desert Solitaire is an iconic piece of American literature. The book describes young Edward’s time as a park ranger at Arches National Monument near Moab, Utah - working primarily in isolation and keeping long, detailed journals, much of which text made it word-for-word into Desert Solitaire. For those who have not read it, Desert Solitaire is a series of vignettes revolving around the desert Southwest, ranging from a polemic against “industrial tourism” to an ambiguously fictional account of the lives of uranium miners to anecdotes of river running, mountain climbing and canyon exploring. The reader is left dazzled both by Abbey’s gorgeous prose and his prickly and hostile attitude towards, seemingly, much of the rest of the world.