A memoir about the book, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey

Unlike all my previous blog postings, this is not a book review. This is an homage to Edward Abbey and a memoir of my discovery of Desert Solitaire.

The year was 1985. Before camping out in Big Bend National Park, my brother and I needed to check-in the Park Headquarters and Visitor Center to pick up our backcountry camping permit. At the Visitor Center, a bookshop sold books and guidebooks relevant to that region’s deserts and mountains. One title attracted my attention. Desert Solitaire.

I removed it off the shelf and browses through it. Mine was love at First Read. I must read this book! Needing to travel light, I did not buy it, instead I made a mental note to buy it when I returned home.

Once home in Providence, RI, I ventured to the College Hill Bookstore on Thayer Street in the heart of the shops catering to the students of Brown University and of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). As the author was until then unknown to me, I assumed that he was little known to others, and that I would need to special order the book. Wrong! It was in stock, waiting for me to buy it immediately, which I did. And I read it immediately. Since then, I’ve been a devotee of the literature of Edward Abbey.