issues in 1973. Vitz
introduced multi month dates in the title.
Barbara Reber took on the
editorship with #120, dated Jan-Feb 1974 and did a fine job for 13.5 years. She
reintroduced the stylized ram's head in the title block and started
photocopying material from magazines etc. The Newsletter became The Desert
Sage in Nov-Dec 1974 and was issued regularly, five times per year.
Anna Valkass became editor with #191 of Aug/Sep 1987 with Maris Valkass her
assistant. They served for 3 years. She made attractive modifications to the
appearance and produced six issues per year, the winter SAGE being dated
Dec/Jan. Anna turned over the job to Ron Jones who was editor for 3.5 years.
His first issue was #208 dated Jun/Jul 1990. Ron made more innovations and was
vigorous in obtaining material so that the SAGE grew in size and became more
like a small magazine. Starting with #314 of July 1991, the dating was changed
to a single month, as it had been until 1971. Since that time, the SAGE has
been dated and issued in Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov of each year. Ron's last
issue was #329 of Jan 1994. It was spectacular with a bright red title block
and 44 interesting pages. Ron was succeeded by John McCully who introduced an
attractive two column format, center stapling, three hole punching and adequate
left margins to make it easier to save SAGEs by binding with ACCO
fasteners.
The topics covered in the last SAGE, #233, are typical. The
topics are, with approximate number of pages: Chair's column -1, schedule of
future DPS trips -1, announcements-1, Treasurer's and Secretary's reports -1,
Safety Chair's column -1, Editor's column and obituary -1, letters and
discussion of dogs on trips -3, trip notes from the DPS past by Ron Jones -1,
DPS trip reports -3, index of trip reports -3, private trip reports items of
interest from other publications -4, DPS admin information -2, for a total of
24 pages. The issue contains nine quite good quality photographs.
It is
interesting to observe the change in technology evidenced in the newsletters
over the 44 year time span. Preparation at first was probably by mechanical
typewriter. This was followed by much fancier typewriters and then by
computers. Initially, printing was by stencils on a mimeograph machine. In the
period 1959 to 1969 the ditto process was used. It produced purple printing of
low quality. Xerox |
reproduction probably
started in 1974 because magazine cartoons and photos (low quality) start
appearing.
GETTING TO KNOW EDWARD
ABBEY
By
Ron Jones Many of us recall Edward Abbey when we think of desert
wilderness or of a rough-edged but thoughtful desert personality. To many of
us, much of our feelings for the mystique of the desert are summed up in
Abbey's autobiographical book, Desert Solitaire, and our secret wishes
for saving the desert by his novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang. Perhaps not
many of you know that as DPS Chair I invited Edward Abbey to speak at our
Annual banquet in 1979. He responded, tongue in cheek, that he would come and
speak, but only if the DPS would hire a large hall, fill it with a paid
attendance and split the proceeds with him. Actually, he said at that time, he
had only been to Los Angeles once before and he saw no reason to return. Then
another time I invited him to join Elden Hughes and me on a DPS trip to climb
Wolfhole Mtn in Arizona (near where he wrote Desert Solitaire). He said that he
would like to try and join us but when the time came, he wasn't able to make
it. I finally met him in October 1988 and he autographed his new
autobiographical novel, The Fool's Progress, with the note, "Meet you
someday at Wolfhole". He died soon after, on March 14, 1989.
I was
reminded of all this when I saw Maris Valkass reading the recent biography of
Abbey, Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist- The Life and Legacy of Edward
Abbey. This book, an authorized biography written with the full cooperation
of his family, is authored by James Bishop Jr. and was published this year by
Atheneum Press. I got the book & read it myself and found it to be a true
and accurate account of the Edward Abbey I have studied. I'm not doing a review
of the book but I strongly recommend it to literary friends of the desert and
of Abbey.
For those who have not read Edward Abbey, a good selection
of his writing is found in the anthology, The Best of Edward Abbey, a
Sierra Club Book. Besides Solitaire, Monkey Wrench and Fool's Progress
(not his best writing but intensely, embarrassingly |