Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey
Author: Jack Loeffler
No writer has had a greater influence on the American West than Edward Abbey (1927-89), author of twenty-one books of fiction and nonfiction. This long-awaited biographical memoir by one of Abbey's closest friends is a tribute to the gadfly anarchist who popularized environmental activism in his novel The Monkey Wrench Gang and articulated the spirit of the arid West in Desert Solitaire and scores of other essays and articles. In the course of a twenty-year friendship Ed Abbey and Jack Loeffler shared hundreds of campfires, hiked thousands of miles, and talked endlessly about the meaning of life. To read Loeffler's account of his best pal's life and work is to join in their friendship.
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Abbey came west to attend the University of New Mexico on the G.I. Bill. His natural inclination toward anarchism led him to study philosophy, but after earning an M.A. he rejected academic life and worked off and on for years as a backcountry ranger and fire lookout around the Southwest. His 1956 novel The Brave Cowboy launched his literary career, and by the 1970s he was recognized as an important, uniquely American voice. Abbey used his talents to protest against the mining and development of the American West. By the time of his death he had become an idol to environmentalists, writers, and free spirits all over the West.
"Ed Abbey and Jack Loeffler were like Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. Loeffler delivers his friend, warts and all on a platter full of reverence and irreverence and carefully researched factual information, interspersed with hearty laughter and much serious consideration of all life's Great Questions. Jack's story elucidates anddemythifies the Abbey legend, giving us powerful flesh and blood instead."—John Nichols
The New York Times
"Adventures With Ed . . . is witheringly precise when it comes to finding [Abbey's] living spirit.
Outside
. . . look to Loeffler to see why this serial husband, womanizer, and heavy drinker was beloved, even worshiped, by a wide circle of admirers.
Booklist
Loeffler's intimate, incisive, and loving portrait of Abbey replaces the old, brittle caricature with an indelible body-and-soul vision of a true American original.
Southwest BookViews
. . . Loeffler uses his own journals of their escapades and the narrative becomes very personal.
Weekly Alibi
. . . Loeffler's Adventures with Ed probably comes closest to the way Abbey would have liked to be remembered. . . . very entertaining reading . . . because Abbey himself continues to be so endlessly fascinating.
Inside Tucson Business
. . . Abbey was above all else a man who placed paramount importance on friendship. And in the final analysis this is a book about friendship, about two compadres sharing the same trail.
Library Journal
Hard on the heels of James Cahalan's Edward Abbey: A Life (LJ 10/15/01) comes this more personal reminiscence by one of author and environmental activist Abbey's closest friends. The book is part biography and part memoir, and it is the latter aspect that makes it of special interest. Loeffler and Abbey (1927-89) spent countless days together, hiking, camping, drinking beer, and talking about the natural beauty of the West and how it was being despoiled by industry and government. It is these long conversations, and the friends' adventures in Mexico and the Western landscape, that energize the second half of the book. Moments of high hilarity alternate with moving scenes from Abbey's life and final days, ending with Loeffler's secret burial of Abbey in the desert they both loved so much. Readers will want to skip the countless sections on anarchism and the diatribes against the industrial-military complex. Though Loeffler's portrait lacks the shades of gray found in Cahalan's biography, this book is highly recommended for Abbey's fans and for larger public library collections. Morris Hounion, N.Y.C. Technical Coll. Lib., CUNY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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Diplomat's Dictionary
Author: Chas W Freeman
Diplomacy obviously means very different things to different people. In this entertaining and informative collection, career diplomat Chas Freeman brings together keen observations, witty insights, shrewd advice, and classic words of wisdom on the art and practice of diplomacy. In so doing, this wide-ranging compendium draws on many cultures, ancient and modern.
This revised edition adds about eighty new entries to the text. Like the first edition, it should be useful to "anyone who may be called upon to deal with complex and challenging situations in cross-cultural circumstances."
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