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Edward Abbey & Desert Solitaire / The Monkey Wrench Gang: A Collector's Authority Guide

By Josh Eldred · New Mexico Literacy Project · · ~5,300 words

In 1956 a twenty-nine-year-old University of New Mexico philosophy graduate student named Edward Paul Abbey completed his master's thesis "Anarchism and the Morality of Violence" under Hubert G. Alexander, took his UNM master's degree, and accepted a seasonal park-ranger appointment at Arches National Monument in Utah for the 1956 and 1957 seasons. Twelve years later McGraw-Hill published Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness in New York. Seven years after that Lippincott published The Monkey Wrench Gang. Together those two books would substantially reshape American environmental writing and inspire the 1980 founding of Earth First!, the environmental direct-action movement that would dominate Western American wilderness-protection politics through the 1980s and 1990s. Abbey lived in Albuquerque, in Oracle Arizona, and at various Southwest locations through his March 14 1989 death from esophageal varices hemorrhage. Per his explicit written instructions, his friends Doug Peacock, Jack Loeffler, Earle Stuart Lichty, and Tom Cartwright transported his body to the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona desert and buried him there without coffin or marker — the principal contemporary American literary secret-burial event. This is the collector's guide to Abbey's NM canon.

Last verified May 2026 · Original research by Josh Eldred

Edward Abbey and the UNM Connection

Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 — March 14, 1989, closed pool), born Indiana Pennsylvania, raised in Home Pennsylvania, hitchhiked west in summer 1944 (his foundational pre-college Southwest encounter), served in the U.S. Army in Italy 1945-1947 as a military policeman, took the University of New Mexico bachelor's in philosophy and English 1951 on the GI Bill, completed his University of New Mexico master's in philosophy 1956 with thesis "Anarchism and the Morality of Violence" under Hubert G. Alexander.

Abbey held seasonal park ranger and fire-lookout appointments across the 1950s-1970s at Arches National Park (Utah, his seasonal-ranger station 1956-1957 and 1965 that anchors Desert Solitaire), Petrified Forest National Park, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, and other Southwestern federal protected lands. He held a UNM creative writing faculty appointment 1981-1989 until his death, joining a literary community that included John Nichols and would soon attract Cormac McCarthy to the state. Abbey lived in Albuquerque, Oracle Arizona, Wolf Hole Arizona, and substantial extended residency at various Southwest locations across his career.

Desert Solitaire — The 1968 McGraw-Hill First Edition

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness (McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1968 first edition) is Edward Abbey's foundational nature-writing classic and the principal Abbey collector trophy. The book is based on Abbey's seasonal-ranger seasons at Arches National Park Utah 1956-1957 and 1965, structured as a literary journal of his solo seasons in the desert landscape, with substantial reflection on industrial-tourism critique, federal land management, and the substantial wilderness-philosophy framework that would shape Abbey's subsequent work.

Desert Solitaire is widely considered alongside Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac 1949 (documented at /new-mexico-geology-natural-history-collecting) and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring 1962 as one of the three foundational American conservation classics of the twentieth century.

POINTS OF ISSUE for the 1968 McGraw-Hill first edition: (1) McGraw-Hill Book Company imprint on title page; (2) Copyright page reading "COPYRIGHT 1968 BY EDWARD ABBEY" with first-edition designation; (3) Original McGraw-Hill cloth binding with original dust jacket; (4) Original modest value cover price on front flap; (5) The Peter Parnall line-drawing illustrations integrated through the text (the substantial Parnall illustration program is a defining feature of the 1968 McGraw-Hill first that subsequent paperback editions reproduce or omit). The 1968 McGraw-Hill first edition with original dust jacket and Parnall illustrations intact is the principal Tier 1 Abbey trophy. Fine signed 1968 McGraw-Hill firsts trade upper-three-figure to low-four-figure at specialist literary-first-edition auction; fine unsigned firsts with dust jacket trade low-three-figure. Subsequent: Ballantine paperback 1971 (the principal 1970s mass-market edition); Touchstone Books / Simon & Schuster trade-paperback editions; Penguin Modern Classics editions. The 1968 McGraw-Hill hardcover with dust jacket is the artifact.

The Monkey Wrench Gang — The 1975 Lippincott First Edition

The Monkey Wrench Gang (J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and New York, 1975 first edition) is Edward Abbey's most influential novel and the principal Abbey environmental-direct-action canon work. The novel follows four characters — George Washington Hayduke (Vietnam veteran-and-environmentalist principal protagonist, principal real-life model Doug Peacock), Bonnie Abbzug, Doc Sarvis, and Seldom Seen Smith — in their direct-action campaign against industrial-development infrastructure across the Southwest, including substantial NM-and-Arizona-and-Utah scenes.

The novel introduced the contemporary American environmental movement to the concepts of ecotage (ecological sabotage) and monkey-wrenching (industrial-infrastructure direct-action) and substantially inspired the 1980 founding of Earth First! by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron Kezar.

POINTS OF ISSUE for the 1975 Lippincott first edition: (1) J.B. Lippincott Company imprint on title page; (2) Copyright page reading "COPYRIGHT 1975 BY EDWARD ABBEY" with first-edition designation; (3) Original Lippincott decorated cloth binding (typically yellow or orange cloth); (4) Original Lippincott dust jacket with non-Crumb cover art (the 1975 Lippincott first was issued without Crumb illustration — Crumb's substantial illustrated edition came ten years later in 1985 from Dream Garden Press as the 10th-anniversary edition); (5) Original modest value cover price on front flap. The 1975 Lippincott first edition with original dust jacket is the principal Tier 1 Monkey Wrench Gang collector target. Fine signed 1975 Lippincott firsts trade upper-three-figure to low-four-figure; fine unsigned firsts with original dust jacket trade low-three-figure. The 1985 Dream Garden Press 10th-anniversary edition with R. Crumb illustrations (12 full-page plus 30 chapter-head illustrations plus the previously-deleted "Seldom Seen at Home" chapter) is a separate Tier 1 collector object alongside the 1975 Lippincott first.

The 1990 posthumous Hayduke Lives! sequel (Little Brown 1990 first hardcover) completes the Monkey Wrench Gang narrative; the 1990 Little Brown Hayduke Lives! first hardcover with dust jacket is a Tier 2 collector target.

Sitting on a shelf of these? I'll pick up your whole collection free anywhere in Albuquerque and tell you honestly what it's worth — keep it, sell it, or donate it, your call. Text me at 702-496-4214.

Jack Loeffler and the Embudo Valley Friendship

Jack Loeffler (born 1936), sustained Santa Fe and Embudo NM residency since the 1960s (documented at /new-mexico-music-folklore-collecting), was Edward Abbey's principal NM friend and the figure who substantially anchored Abbey to the Embudo Valley artists' community across the 1960s-1980s. Loeffler produced approximately 3,000 hours of field recordings across his career, including substantial Abbey audio interviews that constitute the principal Abbey audio archive.

The principal Loeffler-Abbey publication is Jack Loeffler Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey (University of New Mexico Press 2002 first hardcover) — the canonical Abbey-NM memoir based on Loeffler's lifetime friendship and audio archive. The 2002 UNM Press Adventures with Ed first hardcover with original dust jacket is the Tier 2 Abbey collector target and the principal NM-anchored Abbey biographical work.

Loeffler was one of the four friends (alongside Doug Peacock, Earle Stuart Lichty, and Tom Cartwright) who transported Abbey's body to the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge after his March 14 1989 death and buried him there without coffin or marker per his explicit instructions. The Loeffler audio archive is held at the UNM Center for Southwest Research.

Earth First! and the Monkey Wrench Gang Influence

Earth First! is the environmental direct-action movement co-founded April 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron Kezar following a backpacking trip to the Pinacate Desert in northern Mexico. Dave Foreman (October 18 1946 — September 19 2022 closed pool, born Albuquerque NM) was the principal Earth First! leadership figure of the 1980s. Foreman took the University of New Mexico bachelor's in history 1968 and served as Wilderness Society NM field representative in the 1970s.

The movement's principal direct-action campaigns of the 1980s-1990s drew substantially on The Monkey Wrench Gang ecotage-and-monkey-wrenching framework. Foreman's principal Earth First! publication is Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching (with Bill Haywood, Ned Ludd Books 1985 first softcover, the practical-instruction direct-action manual). Foreman left Earth First! in 1989 after substantial FBI investigation and indictment (the THERMCON case); founded the Wildlands Project (now Rewilding Institute) in 1991. Abbey wrote substantial Earth First!-supportive material including the introduction to Ecodefense.

Fire on the Mountain — The NM-Specific Abbey Novel

Fire on the Mountain (Dial Press, New York, 1962 first hardcover) is Edward Abbey's principal NM-set novel — substantially based on the historical resistance of NM rancher John Prather (1885-1965 closed pool) to White Sands Missile Range expansion in the 1950s. The historical John Prather operated the Prather Ranch in the Tularosa Basin area south of Alamogordo NM from the early twentieth century. In 1957 the U.S. Army initiated condemnation proceedings to expand the White Sands Missile Range and absorb the Prather Ranch. Prather, then in his early seventies, refused to vacate the property despite federal court orders. The substantial federal-vs-rancher standoff drew national press attention through 1957-1962 with Prather repeatedly turning back federal marshals. Prather's resistance ultimately resulted in a substantial federal compromise allowing him to remain on the ranch for his lifetime; he died on the property in 1965.

Abbey's Fire on the Mountain transposes the Prather narrative to a fictional Vado de Piedra Ranch with substantial alteration of detail but substantial fidelity to the central federal-vs-rancher conflict — a ranching-landscape struggle that resonates with Max Evans's portraits of rural New Mexico. The 1962 Dial Press first hardcover with original dust jacket is the Tier 1 Fire on the Mountain collector target; Abbey-signed copies trade upper-three-figure at specialist Western Americana auction. The novel was adapted into a 1981 NBC made-for-TV film with Buddy Ebsen and Ron Howard.

Inherited a library and not sure where to start? Call or text 702-496-4214 — I handle this all the time.

The Broader Abbey Bibliography

Early novels: Jonathan Troy (Dodd Mead 1954 first novel, Abbey later disowned the apprentice work); The Brave Cowboy: An Old Tale in a New Time (Dodd Mead 1956 first hardcover, foundational Abbey western novel, basis for the 1962 MGM Lonely Are the Brave film starring Kirk Douglas with Dalton Trumbo screenplay).

Mid-career: Black Sun (Simon & Schuster 1971 first hardcover Abbey's principal love-and-loss novel); Good News (Dutton 1980 dystopian post-collapse novel); The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel (Henry Holt 1988 first hardcover Abbey's autobiographical capstone novel).

Essay collections: Appalachian Wilderness (1970 with Eliot Porter photographs); Slickrock: Endangered Canyons of the Southwest (Sierra Club 1971 with Philip Hyde photographs); Cactus Country (Time-Life 1973); The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West (Dutton 1977 first hardcover); Abbey's Road: Take the Other (Dutton 1979 first hardcover); Down the River (Dutton 1982 first hardcover); Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside (Holt Rinehart Winston 1984 first hardcover); One Life at a Time, Please (Henry Holt 1988 first hardcover).

Posthumous: Hayduke Lives! (Little Brown 1990 first hardcover Monkey Wrench Gang sequel); Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey 1951-1989 (Little Brown 1994 edited by David Petersen); Earth Apples: The Poetry of Edward Abbey (St. Martin's 1994).

Three-Tier Collector Market

Tier 1 trophy (mid-three-figure to upper-four-figure): Signed Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire McGraw-Hill 1968 first edition first-printing hardcover with original dust jacket; signed The Monkey Wrench Gang Lippincott 1975 first edition first-printing hardcover with original dust jacket; fine unsigned 1968 McGraw-Hill Desert Solitaire first; fine unsigned 1975 Lippincott Monkey Wrench Gang first with original dust jacket; the 1985 Dream Garden Press 10th-anniversary edition with R. Crumb illustrations (separate collector category); signed Abbey The Brave Cowboy Dodd Mead 1956 first hardcover; signed Abbey Fire on the Mountain Dial Press 1962 first hardcover (principal NM-set Abbey novel); signed Abbey Black Sun Simon & Schuster 1971 first; signed Abbey The Fool's Progress Holt 1988 first hardcover (autobiographical capstone novel); signed Dave Foreman with Bill Haywood Ecodefense Ned Ludd Books 1985 first softcover; signed Doug Peacock Grizzly Years McGraw-Hill 1990 first.

Tier 2 collector targets (low-to-mid three-figure): Unsigned Tier 1 firsts in fine condition; Abbey Jonathan Troy Dodd Mead 1954 first hardcover (Abbey's disowned first novel); Abbey Appalachian Wilderness 1970 with Eliot Porter photographs first; Abbey Slickrock Sierra Club 1971 with Philip Hyde photographs first; Abbey The Journey Home Dutton 1977 first; Abbey's Road Dutton 1979 first; Abbey Down the River Dutton 1982 first; Abbey Beyond the Wall Holt Rinehart Winston 1984 first; Abbey One Life at a Time, Please Holt 1988 first; Abbey Good News Dutton 1980 first; Abbey Hayduke Lives! Little Brown 1990 first hardcover; Abbey Confessions of a Barbarian Little Brown 1994 posthumous journals; Jack Loeffler Adventures with Ed UNM Press 2002 first hardcover (the principal NM-anchored Abbey memoir); James Bishop Jr. Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist Atheneum 1994 (the principal Abbey biography).

Tier 3 working library (upper-two-figure to low-three-figure): Subsequent Ballantine / Touchstone / Avon / Holt trade-paperback editions of all canonical Abbey; Penguin Modern Classics editions; Sierra Club editions; 1981 NBC TV-tie-in Fire on the Mountain editions; movie-tie-in 1962 Lonely Are the Brave editions; mass-market paperback editions; academic monographs on Abbey; Earth First! Journal back issues.

NMLP Intake Position

Edward Abbey books arrive in NMLP donation pickups with substantial frequency given Abbey's UNM master's-thesis-and-creative-writing-faculty connection and the substantial NM Anglo environmental-and-counterculture reader demographic. Donor surface concentration: UNM Department of English faculty estates (substantial Abbey scholarly publication and signed Abbey first editions, particularly faculty who knew Abbey during his 1981-1989 UNM creative writing appointment); UNM Department of Philosophy faculty estates (Abbey's 1956 master's thesis is the foundational Abbey philosophy work); Albuquerque Anglo professional retirees with substantial 1970s-1980s Earth First!-era environmental-and-counterculture library accumulation; Santa Fe and Embudo Valley Anglo retiree estates (substantial Jack Loeffler / Edward Abbey 1960s-1980s Embudo Valley arts community legacy); substantial NM-and-Western-environmental-organization member estates including Earth First!, Sierra Club NM chapter, NM Wilderness Alliance, Forest Guardians.

NMLP routes Tier 1 trophy items to specialist Western Americana and environmental-literature dealers (Heritage Auctions Books and Manuscripts, William Reese Company New Haven CT, Swann Galleries Modern Literature sales). Tier 2 trade firsts route through SellBooksABQ standard hand-sort. Tier 3 trade-paperback Abbey editions and movie-tie-in Lonely Are the Brave editions route to APS Title I schools, UNM English and Philosophy Department classroom-set acquisitions, regional research-library partnership network, NM Wilderness Alliance and Sierra Club NM chapter institutional donations, and Little Free Library stocking. Learn more about where your books go. Free statewide pickup — schedule your pickup or text/call 702-496-4214.

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Cite This Guide

Eldred, J. (May 2026). Edward Abbey & Desert Solitaire / The Monkey Wrench Gang: A Collector's Authority Guide. New Mexico Literacy Project.

https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/edward-abbey-desert-solitaire-monkey-wrench-collecting

Content is original research by Josh Eldred. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite with attribution.