SOURCE: Cahalan, James M. “Edward Abbey, Appalachian Easterner.” Western American Literature 31, no. 3 (fall 1996): 233-53.

In the following essay, Cahalan discusses how Abbey's Eastern roots—including his experiences in Appalachia—contributed to his identity as a Western writer.

Edward Abbey is part of a long tradition of western writers from the East.¹ By focusing on Abbey's Appalachian roots, I want to extend his status—already well established in western literature—and emphasize the very real links between his eastern heritage and his achievements in writing memorably about the Southwest as well as his native western Pennsylvania. I outline the facts about his Appalachian experience and his earliest writings, and then focus on Appalachian Wilderness, Jonathan Troy, and The Fool's Progress in the light of these key contexts.

As Kentucky novelist Gurney Norman tells me, “I don't think that it's ultimately fruitful to try to set up an opposition between...