SOURCE: Loeffler, Jack. “Edward Abbey, Anarchism and the Environment.” Western American Literature 28, no. 1 (spring 1993): 43-49.

In the following essay, Loeffler offers a personal remembrance of Abbey's contribution to literature and environmentalism.

One time, Ed Abbey and I were talking about an upcoming election. Ed said to me, “I'm a registered anarchist.”

I asked him, “How long have you been a registered anarchist?”

Ed said “Oh, about 5000 years. In the realm of ideal politics, I'm some sort of an agrarian, barefoot wilderness eco-freak anarchist. One of my favorite thinkers is Prince Kropotkin. Another is Henry Thoreau.”

Professionally, Abbey's greatest wish was to be regarded as a fine writer, a literary man. Many's the time Abbey confided that he felt that New York publishers thought he'd been born on the wrong side of the Hudson. But after due consideration, he concluded that the wrong side was actually the right side...