| Dear Ron, I have read a good many desert books, and could run a regular column of vibrant book reviews. Let me know. I think my most favorite desert book is "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey. I was enchanted with reading this book, and would have been happier if I had read no more of Edward Abbey's. Here is a little squib I recently wrote regarding Edward Abbey. Edward Abbey (1927-1990) Born in thee East, and travelling in the west part of the country, Abbey was allured to the desert regions and became a park ranger about 1957 in Arches Nat'l Monument near Moab, Utah. An avowed philosophical anarchist, his "Desert Solitaire" exploded in 1968 as thee angriest and most impassioned of all demands for an end to "development". He greatly opposed the National Park Service's program of opening the domains with more roads. To call Edward Abbey the "Thoreau" of the West is apt. "Desert Sensitive" as are all his books, is most environmentally sensitive. This book is richly descriptive of the natural setting of a variety of places throughout Utah. His book "Monkey Wrench Gang" is purple passion environmeintaliatic activist to the point of being obnoxious. Other of his books are "Black Sun", "Cactus Country", "Fire on the Mountain", and "The Brave Cowboy". Edward Abbey's untimely death was in 1990. Yours, Henry Heusinkveld |
||||
|
||||
| Tomorrow we
leave on a 2 months (hopefully) drive to the Everglades FL and big bend TX. As
for my favorite book Ron, I guess it is "Into A Desert Place" by Graham
Mackintosh. This is Graham's story of his 3000 mile walk around the (mostly)
desert coast of Baja California. With no previous wilderness travel experience,
Mackintosh set out An April 1983 in one of the most grueling and challenging
solo bipedal treks ever taken. As Graham says, "I had never done anything
adventurous in my life. I wasn't fit. I knew nothing about the desert. I
couldn't speak Spanish. I head no money. With my red hair and fair skin, I was
probably the last person in the world to go traipsing around a sun-baked
wilderness." carrying a 60-pound backpack, he learned the art of desert
survival by laboriously distilling sea water and by eating cactus fruit,
rattlesnakes ("nothing could have been easier than cleaning and skinning that
big snake. The skin simply peels back. The innards are out cleaner than with a
fish and then it is just a matter of chopping and frying. We all agreed that
tried rattlesnake looks and tastes something like chicken") and fish caught
from the shore. The hardy Scottsman had to overcome sunstroke, hunger,
dehydration, scorpion stings, attacks by rabid animals, a shark bite and
treacherous terrain. Ron, Graham would make a delightful speaker for the DPS
annual banquet. Love, Betty McCosker |
||||
| Page Index | Prev | Page 34 | Next | Issue Index |