Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of an enigma
Review: Any life as filled with controversy, contradiction and conflict as Ed Abbey's cannot be summed up in any one book. That is why Jim Cahalan's book is a valuable addition to any library that assumes to describe this complicated character. No other book about Abbey has as much detail, fact and non-creative non-fiction as Cahalan's. Abbey intended to be an enigma, making the task of uncovering the real person even more daunting. Cahalan has shown the perseverance of a private investigator in uncovering as much reality as anyone knows about Ed Abbey. His organizational skills have given us a wonderful view of Abbey's work, life and philosophy.
This book is highly recommended for anyone who desires to have as complete a picture as possible of the 20th century's most important environmental anarchist, Edward Abbey.
Rating:
Summary: Portrait of an enigma
Review: Any life as filled with controversy, contradiction and conflict as Ed Abbey's cannot be summed up in any one book. That is why Jim Cahalan's book is a valuable addition to any library that assumes to describe this complicated character. No other book about Abbey has as much detail, fact and non-creative non-fiction as Cahalan's. Abbey intended to be an enigma, making the task of uncovering the real person even more daunting. Cahalan has shown the perseverance of a private investigator in uncovering as much reality as anyone knows about Ed Abbey. His organizational skills have given us a wonderful view of Abbey's work, life and philosophy.
This book is highly recommended for anyone who desires to have as complete a picture as possible of the 20th century's most important environmental anarchist, Edward Abbey.
Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive to a Fault
Review: As mentioned in an earlier review this book features a comprehensive Edward Abbey bibliography. The problem is that the author has read all of these books and has decided to include every single detail about Abbey's life, no matter how insignificant. The problem is that Cahalan seems to know a lot about Abbey without actually KNOWING anything about Edward Abbey. The result is copious run-on sentences and thirty page chapters about unimportant periods of Abbey's life. This book quickly becomes laborious to read due to these faults and the excessive amount of gratuitous quotes. It is not for the casual Abbey fan. One could argue that the positive reviews are all probably from hard core Abbey fanatics while the lukewarm ones are from those who do not practice fanatical devotion to the cult of Cactus Ed. It delivers on its promise to destroy the myths about Cactus Ed. The problem is that once you learn about Abbey's character (or profound lack of character) you long for the myth of Cactus Ed.
Rating:
Summary: The Many Sides of Ed Abbey
Review: Edward Abbey (1927-1989) had a big impact on me through his book, DESERT SOLITAIRE. Although our paths never crossed, we shared the same Arizona desert. He taught at the University of Arizona while I was a college student there, and for awhile we even lived in the same Tucson canyon. In James Cahalan's new biography, "cult followers of 'Cactus Ed,' on the one hand, will encounter in these pages another, different, more private Abbey. On the other hand, readers and teachers who have decided from some fleeting snapshot that Abbey disliked other races and women, for example, and do not want to read or teach his books, can read more about the Abbey who edited a bilingual English-Spanish newspaper and spoke at a Navajo rally, and the Abbey who so helpfully reviewed, advised, and befriended several women writers" (p. xii), including Arizona activist Katie Lee, Terry Tempest Williams, Ann Zwinger (p. xii), and Annie Dillard (p. 137).Cahalan reveals that Abbey's books are autobiographical to an extent, and that his subject went to great lengths to perpetuate the persona of "Cactus Ed." For instance, Abbey was not born in Home, as he claimed, nor did he ever live in Oracle (pp. xi, 3). Based on his careful research and more than 100 interviews with people who knew Abbey, including Abbey's widow, Clarke Cartwright-Abbey, his siblings, and friends such as Dave Foreman, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, and Leslie Marmon Silko, Cahalan succeeds in bringing his subject to life in these pages. Abbey's fascinating life reads like fiction. Abbey was "an independent, rebellious, free spirit" even from an early age (p. 20). He was a "loner" in high school, and a "kind of hippie of his day" (p. 21), who hitchhiked West between his junior and senior years in high school (p. 28). "It was wanderlust, pure and simple" (p. 31), Abbey said. He became a Westerner at age 17, obsessed, "sense and mind, by desert thoughts, canyon thoughts" (p. 63) for the rest of his life. After graduating from high school in 1945, he joined the army (p. 33) before later becoming an anti-war activist (p. 99). "No home, no income, no job" (p. 80) was a familiar theme in Abbey's life. Cahalan follows Abbey, "fueled by separation, lust, and alcohol" (p. 273), through his jobs as bartender, caseworker, laborer, teacher, technical writer, and ranger, from Appalachia, Alaska, Albuquerque, Cabeza Prieta, Taos, Death Valley, Glen Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Half Moon Bay, Moab to Tucson. Along his path from free-spirited loner to "postmodern, anarchist cowboy" (p. 225), Abbey marries five times and fathers five children before his March 14, 1989 death. Cahalan triumphs in revealing that Abbey lived in a "tortured inner world" amidst a "beautiful outerworld" (p. 91). Abbey would probaby have "no comment" about Cahalan's well-researched, insightful biography. "Death is not tragic," he would remind us. Rather, existing "without fully participating in life--that is the deepest personal tragedy" (p. 208). Although this is not an authorized biography, it is the best biographical resource we have of Ed Abbey to date. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: The Ed behind the Cactus.
Review: Edward Abbey (1927-1989) had a big impact on me through his book, DESERT SOLITAIRE. Although our paths never crossed, we shared the same Arizona desert. He taught at the University of Arizona while I was a college student there, and for awhile we even lived in the same Tucson canyon. In James Cahalan's new biography, "cult followers of 'Cactus Ed,' on the one hand, will encounter in these pages another, different, more private Abbey. On the other hand, readers and teachers who have decided from some fleeting snapshot that Abbey disliked other races and women, for example, and do not want to read or teach his books, can read more about the Abbey who edited a bilingual English-Spanish newspaper and spoke at a Navajo rally, and the Abbey who so helpfully reviewed, advised, and befriended several women writers" (p. xii), including Arizona activist Katie Lee, Terry Tempest Williams, Ann Zwinger (p. xii), and Annie Dillard (p. 137). Cahalan reveals that Abbey's books are autobiographical to an extent, and that his subject went to great lengths to perpetuate the persona of "Cactus Ed." For instance, Abbey was not born in Home, as he claimed, nor did he ever live in Oracle (pp. xi, 3). Based on his careful research and more than 100 interviews with people who knew Abbey, including Abbey's widow, Clarke Cartwright-Abbey, his siblings, and friends such as Dave Foreman, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, and Leslie Marmon Silko, Cahalan succeeds in bringing his subject to life in these pages. Abbey's fascinating life reads like fiction. Abbey was "an independent, rebellious, free spirit" even from an early age (p. 20). He was a "loner" in high school, and a "kind of hippie of his day" (p. 21), who hitchhiked West between his junior and senior years in high school (p. 28). "It was wanderlust, pure and simple" (p. 31), Abbey said. He became a Westerner at age 17, obsessed, "sense and mind, by desert thoughts, canyon thoughts" (p. 63) for the rest of his life. After graduating from high school in 1945, he joined the army (p. 33) before later becoming an anti-war activist (p. 99). "No home, no income, no job" (p. 80) was a familiar theme in Abbey's life. Cahalan follows Abbey, "fueled by separation, lust, and alcohol" (p. 273), through his jobs as bartender, caseworker, laborer, teacher, technical writer, and ranger, from Appalachia, Alaska, Albuquerque, Cabeza Prieta, Taos, Death Valley, Glen Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Half Moon Bay, Moab to Tucson. Along his path from free-spirited loner to "postmodern, anarchist cowboy" (p. 225), Abbey marries five times and fathers five children before his March 14, 1989 death. Cahalan triumphs in revealing that Abbey lived in a "tortured inner world" amidst a "beautiful outerworld" (p. 91). Abbey would probaby have "no comment" about Cahalan's well-researched, insightful biography. "Death is not tragic," he would remind us. Rather, existing "without fully participating in life--that is the deepest personal tragedy" (p. 208). Although this is not an authorized biography, it is the best biographical resource we have of Ed Abbey to date. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: A biography that reads like a novel
Review: Edward Abbey's life was so interesting that most any decently-written biography of him should be entertaining. Cahalan's biography is certainly that, but he also delves into Abbey's psyche through the presentation of details that are ignored in other biographies of Abbey. Thus, the reader is provided an image of Abbey that has a lot of "texture," and, I believe, is closer to a faithful picture of the real man, faults and virtues combined. Cahalan does a good job of remaining impartial, and tries to present the events just as they are, so that the reader is pretty much left free to make his/her own judgements about Abbey The Man. This doesn't mean that Cahalan's personal opinions about Abbey don't come out in the book (he is sympathetic to Abbey), but he lets the reader know when he is expressing an opinion, and when he is stating what is taken as fact.
Biographies of famous authors, especially revolutionary ones like Abbey, is a genre that I have started to really enjoy. It seems that, for me at least, reading about the events, and the author's reactions to them, that helped to form such an extraordinary individual is often more entertaining than the author's own writings! That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed most of Abbey's books (not all, though). The same goes for Jack Kerouac. Cahalan's biography and Ann Charter's biography of Kerouac are two fine examples of biographies that read like novels, but are in some ways better, because they report actual events!
Rating:
Summary: Ed Abbey Comes to Life Once Again
Review: Edward Abbey; A Life is a fine chronicle of the life of perhaps the greatest American writer of the 20th century. Mr. Cahalan offers a balanced, stick-to-the-well researced facts, account of Abbey's life. He obviously had excellent cooperation from a number of people who knew Abbey well. He also does not fall into the trap of offering his own analysis of Abbey. This leads to a book about Abbey and not what the biographer thinks of Abbey as happened in Bishop's biography. After reading Edward Abbey: A Life, you may not want to blow up a dam, but you will come to wish you got to spent some time with Abbey in a deserted fire tower.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific book on Abbey's life and writing!
Review: I had never even heard of Edward Abbey until Dr. James Cahalan's book was published. I live approximately 35 miles from Indiana and Home, Pennsylvania, and happened to catch an interview of Dr. Cahalan on my NBC affiliate in Johnstown.
This sparked an interest in Abbey and I immediately bought "The Fool's Progress." I struggled to get through 250 of the 513 pages of his "Fat Masterpiece."
I received Dr. Cahalan's "Edward Abbey: a life" as a gift and found it extremely interesting. The author provides very good insights into Abbey's life, his viewpoints and his writing style.
Reading this book has breathed new life into my interest in Abbey. Having read Dr. Cahalan's book has given me what I needed to now finish "The Fool's Progress" with a better understanding of the context in which the book was written. Also, as soon as I finished "Edward Abbey: a life" I bought "Desert Solitaire."
"Edward Abbey: a life" has given this casual (or maybe wannabe) Abbey fan the inspiration and understanding to become a true Abbey fan. In my opinion, this book is the perfect starting point for those fans wanting to explore the many facets of Edward Abbey's life, relationships and writing.
Rating:
Summary: A very thorough, fair, and well-written biography!
Review: I love how this book taught me so many things about Abbey's life that I never knew before, and how he brings in Abbey's voice by quoting him so effectively. It's an important book because it digs beneath the myth of "Cactus Ed" to the real man and the working writer, and it makes me want to go back and reread Abbey's books. Another good feature is how Cahalan makes Abbey part of his broader historical scene by bringing in related historical events, not only in environmental history but also Vietnam and other events that many might not know also interested and influenced Abbey. This was fun to read! Both Abbey fans and readers new to him will like this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Three Star Book About a Five Star Man
Review: I'll givethe bibliography two stars, but I doubt the author read the books helisted. In the book I read, the author repeatedly placed himselfbetween the book's subject and the reader ("I went to Abbey's fiftiethIndiana reunion in September 1995, where he was posthumously honored,and I expected to hear that he was an unforgettable character andperhaps a practical joker" p21). In other places, Cahalan seemshell-bent on making a most unlikely comparison stick in the reader'smind--"The Abbey's unstable, obscure existence is underscored evenmore sharply if one contrasts it with the "beautiful life" enjoyed bya more famous, older Indiana county native: Jimmy Stewart." Please!Most disturbing to me is Cahalan's failure to really dig inside ofAbbey's life to find out what makes a person write such incrediblyvivid and inspiring prose. Instead, he chose to do to Ed Abbey whatMary Street Alinder did to Ansel Adams--attempt to smear a genius byhighlighting his sex life. Referring to one of Abbey's "friends,"Cahalan writes the following unfootnoted sensationalism: "One of themwith medical training noted that, if Abbey had been born just slightlylater--with his peak 1970s promiscuity occurring instead a decade ortwo later, at the height of the AIDS epidemic--he would not have livedas long as he did." Professor James Cahalan presumes to evoke thegreat Clifford Gertz's phrase "thick description" as a explanation ofthis biography. Well, I guess the book is thick.Ed Abbey did say,"One brave deed, performed in an honorable manner and for alife-defending case, is worth a thousand books." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition
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