The Journey Home: Some Words in the Defense of the American WestThe Journey Home ranges from the surreal cityscapes of Hoboken and Manhattan to the solitary splendor of the deserts and mountains of the Southwest. It is alive with ranchers, dam builders, kissing bugs, and mountain lions. In a voice edged with chagrin, Edward Abbey offers a portrait of the American West that we’ll not soon forget, offering us the observations of a man who left the urban world behind to think about the natural world and the myths buried therein. Abbey, our foremost “ecological philosopher,” has a voice like no other. He can be wildly funny, ferociously acerbic, and unexpectedly moving as he ardently champions our natural wilderness and castigates those who would ravish it for the perverse pleasure of profit. |
Contents
Hallelujah on the Bum | 1 |
The Great American Desert | 12 |
Disorder and Early Sorrow | 23 |
Numa Ridge | 30 |
Snow Canyon | 58 |
Desert Places | 62 |
Death Valley | 71 |
Come On In | 85 |
Let Us Now Praise Mountain Lions | 131 |
Tree Fuzz vs Freaks | 138 |
The BLOB Comes to Arizona | 146 |
The Second Rape of the West | 158 |
Down the River with Major Powell | 189 |
Walking | 203 |
The Crooked Wood | 206 |
Mountain Music | 209 |
Manhattan Twilight Hoboken Night | 89 |
A Revelation | 102 |
The Great Globe Arizona Wild Pig and Varmint Hunt | 114 |
Telluride BluesA Hatchet Job | 119 |
Shadows from the Big Woods | 223 |
Freedom and Wilderness Wilderness and Freedom | 227 |
A Movie | 239 |
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American Arizona Aspen bear beautiful bobcat Bull Durham cactus called camp cliffs climb coal Colorado Colstrip coyote dark Death Valley deer desert Desert Solitaire drinking dunes east Edward Abbey energy feet fire lookout forest Glacier green GRIZ growth head highway hike hills Hoboken horse HOWDY PARDNER human Indians industry javelina keep Lake Lake Powell land light live Logan Pass look mesas mesquite miles Montana mountain lion National Park Nehi never night once pass peaks Phoenix pine pinyon pine Plateau poisonous power plants rain ranchers ranger ridge river road rock sand says scorpion smog smoke Snow Canyon Southwest spring square miles stream Street strip mining Telescope Peak Telluride thing tion town trail trees truck Tucson Utah walk walls West wild wilderness wildlife wind Yosemite Valley