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Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey, 1951-1989 Hardcover – January 1, 1994

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

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A collection of excerpts from the private journals of an eccentric environmentalist features his notes, philosophies, and character sketches, chronicling his lifelong struggle to preserve the Southwestern wilderness. 20,000 first printing.
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ending with an entry written 12 days before his 1989 death at age 60, the diaries of the late environmentalist and novelist (The Monkeywrench Gang) are adolescent in spirit, with all the virtues and vices that word implies. Abbey is capable of startling self-righteousness; his fulminations against writers he considers second-rate seem to be motivated as much by jealousy as by genuine bewilderment at his rivals' success. Yet such moments are cut with welcome self-mockery: He calls himself "E. Abbey, famous unknown author." Though he traveled over the world, he finds his spiritual home in the American Southwest, and some of his most moving writing here pays lush homage to the austere landscape or lashes out at those poised to destroy it. Abbey the lover is as vocal as the moralist: exuberantly priapic tributes to one woman after another fill these pages. Petersen, a freelance writer and environmentalist, was a longtime friend of "Cactus Ed." Illustrated with Abbey's drawings.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Notorious writer Abbey (The Monkeywrench Gang, Desert Solitaire) kept a journal from the age of 19 until a few days before his death in 1989. Selected and edited by friend and environmental writer Petersen, the entries included here give valuable insight into an incredibly complex man. Beginning in Europe and skipping around the desert Southwest, the journals follow the enigmatic, opinionated Abbey as he creates many enemies and legion of fans over the course of a lifetime. Credited with originating the concept of eco-terrorism in defense of his beloved Western wilderness, Abbey emerges as a misunderstood loner who needed a delicate balance of companionship and freedom to exist. Highlights include candid thoughts on his peers, ongoing feuds with reviewers, and original drawings by Abbey himself. Petersen adds helpful insights and bracketed comments. Essential for all nature, regional, and literary biography collections.
Tim Markus, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, Wash.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown; First Edition (January 1, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 356 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316004154
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316004152
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

About the author

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Edward Abbey
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Edward Abbey was born in Home, Pennsylvania, in 1927. He was educated at the University of New Mexico and the University of Edinburgh. He died at his home in Oracle, Arizona, in 1989.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
32 global ratings

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Customers find the book engaging and important. They describe the characters as genuine and mad about various issues.

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4 customers mention "Readability"4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find it a great read and an important book about Abbey.

"Great read great love of the west" Read more

"...Lives" wanted to read more of Abbey and thought this would be a good book to become more familiar with the man...." Read more

"...understanding of the mind and the influences on Abbey this is an important book...." Read more

"Loved the book. Abbey a genius. Why are we not listening?" Read more

3 customers mention "Human characteristics"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's human characters. They find Ed a genuine man who is mad about many things. Abbey is also a character, and the author is one of their favorite writers.

"One of my favorite writers and humans. I’m certain I’ll appreciate it when I ready it." Read more

"...Ed was a real man, a genuine human being who was mad as hell about a lot of things worth being mad about, a dreamer and romantic, a Great Voice..." Read more

"Abbey is a character!..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2025
    Great read great love of the west
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2011
    After reading Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang", "Desert Solitare" and "Hayduke Lives" wanted to read more of Abbey and thought this would be a good book to become more familiar with the man. Supposed to be as much of an autobiography as exists, it does reveal his thoughts on almost all subjects. Abbey seems to want all out of life, though not always wanting to give of himself unselfishly. He loved so much...women, desert, individuality, freedom from structure and freedom to roam. He touches a chord in almost anyone who loves the wilderness, detests the ever encroaching of civilization to the wild and the greed of destructive corporations. Too bad and too sad to lose him and the spot-on descriptions of all the things that he loved, when he could use words like no other, to tell a story. This books stays in our library as a voice to remind us to protect what wilderness is left.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2021
    One of my favorite writers and humans. I’m certain I’ll appreciate it when I ready it.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2001
    First of all, I can't believe I haven't already written a review of this book, since it has long been one of my favorites. These journals are incredibly well-written; a lot of it reads as well as anything he ever had published. I have all but one of Ed's books ( the first one, Jonathan Troy, which is impossible to find unless you have in the neighborhood of $7,000 to spend on a rare copy ) and I count this as one of my top three. Ed was a real man, a genuine human being who was mad as hell about a lot of things worth being mad about, a dreamer and romantic, a Great Voice howling in the wilderness of a civilization gone stark raving mad. Plus he mentored a lot of folks, including me 21 years ago with his great book Desert Solitaire. We need Ed's voice now more than ever, and if he can't be here the rest of us will have to read ( and re-read and re-read!) his words to keep his vision alive.
    21 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2013
    For anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the mind and the influences on Abbey this is an important book. The problems of focus and the need for time to complete a creative work of fiction is the main focus of this book. Self doubt, interruptions, the need for money to support a family and the need for an environment to incubate and carry out ideas is all part of this work. Reading about another creative person's lows and highs and how Abbey dealt with them is an important support mechanism for anyone with similar concerns who has the self propelled drive that Abbey had.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2021
    Loved the book. Abbey a genius. Why are we not listening?
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2020
    I have wanted the Kindle version of this book for a long time. It finally becomes available and to my disappointment it is in some sort of weird comic book graphic format. On my Kindle for Mac the pages were superimposed and completely un-readible. On my HDX 7 I could zoom the pages up to be able to read but you cannot select text, highlight, or make notes. Also some pages have superimposed characters. The text is not normal kindle text, it behaves like a graphics. My Paperwhite just seemed to bog down and couldn't handle the format.

    I do not understand why this book was not published in the standard kindle text format. I returned the book for a refund.

    Please note that my star rating is not for the book itself, which I would rate at 4 stars but rather just for the horrible Kindle version.
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2007
    A caricaturistic version of Edward Abbey is a familiar figure in the pantheon of environmentalism. His best work, DESERT SOLITAIRE (Ballantine Books, 1985)), and perhaps best known work, THE MONKEY-WRENCH GANG (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006), inspired a generation of wilderness seekers and iconoclasts, spun off EarthFirst! and other direct-action environmental groups, and offered up a larger than life anti-hero, successful in spite of himself. The Abbey visible in his personal journals couldn't help but be far more complex, and these thoughtfully selected excerpts offer a daunting portrait. On the one hand the writer was a graduate in philosophy and passionate afficianado of classical music, powerfully drawn to the academy, a Fulbright scholar and sometime professor. On the other he was rebellious, prickly and explosive in social situations (four stormy marriages interlaced with innumerable affairs and dalliances), utterly dismissive of the eastern literary establishment ... and in perpetual anguish during the long years that the eastern literati ignored him. He was utterly devastated by the leukemia death of one wife -- thrown into a year-long depression -- despite the fact that they were separated and headed for divorce when the disease struck. He was often fearless, and yet abandoned her bedside in the last days, unable to face her suffering. Let's say he was a very conflicted individual. His most singular failure, in my view, was to rail against population growth and immigration (because it eased population pressure elsewhere), while fathering five children. (Hello? Ed? Did you skip sex-ed while you were studying Kant? There is a cause and effect thing going on here you seem to have missed.) This follows easily on the heels of his broader failure as a purported egalitarian/anarchist -- his unrelenting sexism: women seen as decoration, child care providers and sexual conquests. (It appears that his shaky self-esteem was salved by the attention of successively younger women -- not an unusual phenomenon, particularly among the celebrity set.) That said, his successes were powerful as well: a passion for wilderness, a dedication to his vision of an earth saved from total development and despoliation -- expressed in fiction and non-fiction -- with a wit and descriptive power that has underlain much of the success of late 20th century preservation and protection. It is hard to envision a more honest autobiography than a personal journal, and hardly common that such a record is maintained over so many years (from 1946 until twelve days before his death in 1989, though the early volumes were destroyed in a flood), and then made public. This is a revealing look at a singular and influential figure in our recent history. Cactus Ed, you were one hell of a piece of work.
    3 people found this helpful
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