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Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey was an anarchist, activist, philosopher, and the spiritual father of the environmental movement. He was also a passionate journal keeper, a man who filled page after page with notes, philosophical musings, character sketches, illustrations, musical notations, and drawings. His "scribbling," as he called it, began in 1948, when he served as a motorcycle MP in postwar Italy, and continued until his death in 1989, totaling twenty-one volumes.
His journals are the closest thing to an Abbey autobiography we will ever have. They reveal his first youthful philosophical ruminations about art, love, literature, and anarchy as a student at Edinburgh, follow his wanderings through Europe, Scandinavia, and the eastern United States and finally to his spiritual home, the American West; record his many loves and marriages; and chronicle his lifelong struggle to preserve the disappearing southwestern wilderness, as well as his bitter and often hilarious disputes with the East Coast intelligentsia. His journals contain the first inklings—backgrounds, narrative pictures, and sketches—of his hard hitting, popular, irreverent published works. But perhaps most important, they offer us a portrait of Abbey the man: the friend, enemy, husband, lover, loner, writer, and fiery environmentalist who forever changed the way we look at the American West.
Edited by Abbey's good friend, writer David Petersen, Confessions of a Barbarian presents the best of these previously unpublished journals for the first time, illustrated with Abbey's own sketches.
His journals are the closest thing to an Abbey autobiography we will ever have. They reveal his first youthful philosophical ruminations about art, love, literature, and anarchy as a student at Edinburgh, follow his wanderings through Europe, Scandinavia, and the eastern United States and finally to his spiritual home, the American West; record his many loves and marriages; and chronicle his lifelong struggle to preserve the disappearing southwestern wilderness, as well as his bitter and often hilarious disputes with the East Coast intelligentsia. His journals contain the first inklings—backgrounds, narrative pictures, and sketches—of his hard hitting, popular, irreverent published works. But perhaps most important, they offer us a portrait of Abbey the man: the friend, enemy, husband, lover, loner, writer, and fiery environmentalist who forever changed the way we look at the American West.
Edited by Abbey's good friend, writer David Petersen, Confessions of a Barbarian presents the best of these previously unpublished journals for the first time, illustrated with Abbey's own sketches.
418 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1994
30 people are currently reading
522 people want to read
About the author
Edward Abbey
74 books1,958 followersEdward Paul Abbey (1927–1989) was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views.
Abbey attended college in New Mexico and then worked as a park ranger and fire lookout for the National Park Service in the Southwest. It was during this time that he developed the relationship with the area’s environment that influenced his writing. During his service, he was in close proximity to the ruins of ancient Native American cultures and saw the expansion and destruction of modern civilization.
His love for nature and extreme distrust of the industrial world influenced much of his work and helped garner a cult following.
Abbey died on March 14, 1989, due to complications from surgery. He was buried as he had requested: in a sleeping bag—no embalming fluid, no casket. His body was secretly interred in an unmarked grave in southern Arizona.
Abbey attended college in New Mexico and then worked as a park ranger and fire lookout for the National Park Service in the Southwest. It was during this time that he developed the relationship with the area’s environment that influenced his writing. During his service, he was in close proximity to the ruins of ancient Native American cultures and saw the expansion and destruction of modern civilization.
His love for nature and extreme distrust of the industrial world influenced much of his work and helped garner a cult following.
Abbey died on March 14, 1989, due to complications from surgery. He was buried as he had requested: in a sleeping bag—no embalming fluid, no casket. His body was secretly interred in an unmarked grave in southern Arizona.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
February 27, 2024
Whatever else he was aside for the moment, Abbey was a relentless diarist and we have this selection taken from his journals by a close friend (David Peterson) to thank for compiling it. Like many authors when asked which of their work is their favorite they will pick them but Abbey shunned at least this portion of his output and at one point almost destroyed the originals that at the time were in the possession of the University of Arizona special collection. Fortunately they survived and we have this collection to illuminate one of the least understood and frequently most maligned of contemporary writers (not without good reason).
Abbey is a hard one to pin down - frequently funny, often caustic (particularly to fellow writers with whom he had public feuds especially later in life i.e., Tom McGuane, Gretel Erlich and Annie Dillard with whom he was often compared as a “nature writer” for lack of a better label).
“‘Be kind’ is perhaps actually more difficult than ‘Love everybody.’ Love is treacherous, really easy and the lover a tyrant. I would rather be tolerated than loved – wouldn’t I? – as I prefer to tolerate rather than love. I’m another tepid liberal myself, despite extreme inclinations and fanatic aspirations.” (p.59) This sentiment from the man who fathered four children from five different wives and had little to do with the upbringing of most of them either because his peripatetic wandering from coast to coast left him apart from his kids or he was too busy doing what was most important to him.
He grew up in the small town of Indiana, Pennsylvania but is most associated with his life and writings set in the southwest and Utah where he found his muse – the canyon lands and deserts of the American southwest. Although much of who we are today is defined by what we do for a living, Abbey is more defined by the work he didn’t do – an itinerant working part time for the Park Service primarily as a fire lookout, a job he loved for its isolation.
The love of nature sentiment runs strongly throughout his diaries e.g.,
"This land belongs to them that love it (and will fight for it?).
DICTUM: NO AUTOMOBILES IN NATIONAL PARKS.
Let’s make them parks and not parking lots.
FOR HUMAN BEINGS ONLY.
God bless America. Let’s save some of it." (p.141)
But then there is the Abbey who purchased a Cadillac convertible later in life and was known to drive down forest roads tossing his empty beer cans aside saying “my beer cans are prettier than your billboards”.
Much of his writing occurred during and between his stints with the park Service including “Desert Solitaire” one of the greatest books about the outdoors and nature written to date.
Not surprisingly he had a less than positive view of reviewers and the publishing industry he became increasingly dependent on for income because of his spotty work history. About what was reportedly his favorite novel he wrote: “Rejecting Black Sun – the biggest publishing blunder since Simon & Schuster rejected the New Testament.” p. 174 Yet it is candid statements like this that show his humanity: “All of my books have been hastily and carelessly written, in violent desperate spasms of last-minute effort to meet some publishers mad invented deadline. The only book I took pains with, actually labored over was Black Sun and the reviewers hated it. (I think it’s my best, most deeply felt.) p. 253
As readers we can’t help but wonder what the spark is for the book we’re holding in-hand. Here is one of the more clearly stated reasons I’ve seen:
“Why I write:
Not so much to please, soothe or console, as to challenge, provoke, stimulate, even to anger if necessary. Such is my aim. (What’s yours?). And, of course, to entertain. To generate tears and laughter.
Or I wrote to amuse my friends, and to aggravate – exasperate - ulcerate - our enemies.
The fine art of making enemies: I’ve become remarkably good at it. Which is probably why reviewers give me such a hard time?” p.284
And he does all in equal measure in this highly readable collection.
Abbey is a hard one to pin down - frequently funny, often caustic (particularly to fellow writers with whom he had public feuds especially later in life i.e., Tom McGuane, Gretel Erlich and Annie Dillard with whom he was often compared as a “nature writer” for lack of a better label).
“‘Be kind’ is perhaps actually more difficult than ‘Love everybody.’ Love is treacherous, really easy and the lover a tyrant. I would rather be tolerated than loved – wouldn’t I? – as I prefer to tolerate rather than love. I’m another tepid liberal myself, despite extreme inclinations and fanatic aspirations.” (p.59) This sentiment from the man who fathered four children from five different wives and had little to do with the upbringing of most of them either because his peripatetic wandering from coast to coast left him apart from his kids or he was too busy doing what was most important to him.
He grew up in the small town of Indiana, Pennsylvania but is most associated with his life and writings set in the southwest and Utah where he found his muse – the canyon lands and deserts of the American southwest. Although much of who we are today is defined by what we do for a living, Abbey is more defined by the work he didn’t do – an itinerant working part time for the Park Service primarily as a fire lookout, a job he loved for its isolation.
The love of nature sentiment runs strongly throughout his diaries e.g.,
"This land belongs to them that love it (and will fight for it?).
DICTUM: NO AUTOMOBILES IN NATIONAL PARKS.
Let’s make them parks and not parking lots.
FOR HUMAN BEINGS ONLY.
God bless America. Let’s save some of it." (p.141)
But then there is the Abbey who purchased a Cadillac convertible later in life and was known to drive down forest roads tossing his empty beer cans aside saying “my beer cans are prettier than your billboards”.
Much of his writing occurred during and between his stints with the park Service including “Desert Solitaire” one of the greatest books about the outdoors and nature written to date.
Not surprisingly he had a less than positive view of reviewers and the publishing industry he became increasingly dependent on for income because of his spotty work history. About what was reportedly his favorite novel he wrote: “Rejecting Black Sun – the biggest publishing blunder since Simon & Schuster rejected the New Testament.” p. 174 Yet it is candid statements like this that show his humanity: “All of my books have been hastily and carelessly written, in violent desperate spasms of last-minute effort to meet some publishers mad invented deadline. The only book I took pains with, actually labored over was Black Sun and the reviewers hated it. (I think it’s my best, most deeply felt.) p. 253
As readers we can’t help but wonder what the spark is for the book we’re holding in-hand. Here is one of the more clearly stated reasons I’ve seen:
“Why I write:
Not so much to please, soothe or console, as to challenge, provoke, stimulate, even to anger if necessary. Such is my aim. (What’s yours?). And, of course, to entertain. To generate tears and laughter.
Or I wrote to amuse my friends, and to aggravate – exasperate - ulcerate - our enemies.
The fine art of making enemies: I’ve become remarkably good at it. Which is probably why reviewers give me such a hard time?” p.284
And he does all in equal measure in this highly readable collection.
April 3, 2022
Fascinating autobiography/journal of a really important and less than remarked upon man. Also one of those few writers that when you watch interviews with them on Youtube you think "this guy is cool as fuuuuuuuck" and that's well reflected in this. It's always a book that I like to leaf through now and again. If only he were about to do the audiobook.
June 4, 2018
I enjoyed the book even though I abandoned reading it for quite some time. This is no fault of the editor or even the book itself- it’s Abbey’s own damn fault. I had a hard time slogging with his melodramatic whiny shit from the 1950 and early 60s- tedious. About the time he his is mid 30s, You come to recognize the mind and soul that gives you Desert Solitaire and Monkey Wrench Gang. I’ve enjoyed his writing for quite some time and I was curious about the man behind it. So I really enjoyed the latter 2/3s of his journals. I’m sure many will be disappointed to see the imperfect human behind his works but I wasn’t. He was no desert zen monk-saint. Certainly no hippie and in no way politically correct. Far from it, just an ordinary human full of faults and flaws but graced with extraordinary insight and the guts to be honest and critical in print.... maybe with a dash of crazed desert prophet/madman thrown in. If you are a fan of his work, you’ll enjoy these journals. If you want to tear him down, you’ll find plenty to cherrypick and justify your disdain.
February 8, 2010
I was very disappointed in this book. I love Edward Abbey's writing, and was looking forward to a glimpse into his mind -- how he came to write The Monkey Wrench Gang, what it was like to be in Arches Natl. Monument, what prompted him to write Desert Solitaire. Etc.
But no. This book is a series of excerpts from his journals, and are mainly about how his marriages failed, how he met the next wife, etc. Perhaps I'm an unusual fan, but I don't care much about authors or artists personal life -- I care about the music, or the book, and the act of creation.
If there was any of that in this book, it was minuscule, and I missed it.
But no. This book is a series of excerpts from his journals, and are mainly about how his marriages failed, how he met the next wife, etc. Perhaps I'm an unusual fan, but I don't care much about authors or artists personal life -- I care about the music, or the book, and the act of creation.
If there was any of that in this book, it was minuscule, and I missed it.
January 27, 2008
You really have to already be an Ed Abbey fan to appreciate this one. Some of it is tedious and maudlin, but there are bits of treasure if you don't mind plowing through the dross. I hope this doesn't sound like a criticism. These were his private journals started at a very young age and never meant to be published, so they're not exactly an example of literary genius.
I enjoyed much of this just because I've read all of his books and it was interesting to see how his life and writing unfolded.
I enjoyed much of this just because I've read all of his books and it was interesting to see how his life and writing unfolded.
Currently reading
December 28, 2010Reading this now....love it!
September 23, 2019
Fascinating look into the unique individual who loved the desert and southwest canyon country probably more than anyone is history. Has some offensive views and controversial opinions, but overall, it's a great read and has some good wisdom and humor. If you like Paul Theroux stuff, you'll enjoy. I just don't understand how he kept getting women and how he got away with just going off of 100 mile walks whenever he wanted leaving newborn kids to be tended to girlfriends and grandparent, but I guess he figured the ladies knew what they are buying when they signed on. The fact that he decries the tourism in Arches back in the 1950s makes me laugh; he is probably glad he's not alive for the selfie era.
August 17, 2018
Abbey fascinates me. For a sexist racist pig, he's a great writer and environmentalist. There's just something about him that makes me want to keep reading his work. And yes, I know I'm on some government list for that.
I went into this book with little expectations. It took me about 50 pages to get into the rhythm, and for the book to include more than short snippets. He's real in his journals, and the passages included seem to hold nothing back. Abbey was aware of his faults--something we should all aspire to.
I went into this book with little expectations. It took me about 50 pages to get into the rhythm, and for the book to include more than short snippets. He's real in his journals, and the passages included seem to hold nothing back. Abbey was aware of his faults--something we should all aspire to.
December 6, 2018
Amazing and disappointing. Some really interesting insights into the man, he's mostly very honest and yet sometimes you almost wish he wasn't as for all his ideals he's revealed to be insightful, sometimes brilliantly inspired, brutally honest, funny and also, selfish and somehow lacking in imagination for the thoughts and emotions of others. An interesting read but to say it's a bit 'mixed' is an understatement. I'm predisposed to like his general stance on many things but this book was a reality check.
September 13, 2023
“Confessions” starts slow and then it picks up quickly in an unrelenting series of hilarity. I’d say, flawed as he was as a human, and aren’t we all, he is one great writer. His words come from an ape soul. We’re talking basics here - relationships with women being primary. His exchanges with a therapist in a group encounter session was a take on “woke” way, way before I heard that term. The pages turn fast, each prompting good belly laughs. The wording, the pace, the humor, the primal insights, the saying of what mostly lies unsaid - all good.
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March 4, 2025He is such a hero... in my twenties I forgave his womanizing. Now in my 60's after heartbreak it is grating. Thankfully I am re reading some of his other brilliant work and remembering why he is so wonderful.
May 17, 2021
plan to read, in storage
January 15, 2023
Even as a big fan of Abbey, my preconceived notion of these journals was that they were going to be a drag. But here I am, blazing through this interesting 350 page book.
July 28, 2023
Pure unadulterated Abbey. All of his offensive opinions, unfiltered.
February 28, 2024
Gave some detail behind the man, enjoyed seeing how such an author can progress and how one can change their view of the world. The amount of dedication to record all of that is insane.
July 17, 2012
This autobiography was edited after Abbey's death from a collection of his journals. It was a moderately interesting read because I think of Abbey as one of the first environmentalists, and he earned this distinction because he is a determined and outspoken writer. The journals also show the sad side of the man - racist, selfish, and unable to dedicate himself to marriage. He wrote of the sadness of his own impending death well. I believe his books are fun and provocative, if I remember _Monkey Wrench Gang_ correctly, perhaps a more accurate depiction of Abbey.
August 17, 2012
I loved Desert Solitaire so much that I wanted to find out how Abbey had evolved into that writer. This was fascinating and at times disturbing. This book traced his life through his journals. Beginning shortly after college and the end of his first marriage and ending shortly before his death, we see him struggling both professionally and personally. The constant is his love for the nature in Utah and Arizona. Passion, ego, stubbornness, and brilliance are all reflected in these pages.
November 24, 2016
4.5
Ed Abbey in all his glory and nakedness. A beautiful and troubling journey "down the river" of Abbey's writing and personal life. Aptly titled from his own words, the journals reflect a man who could be as barbaric as the barren deserts he loved so deeply. But he is also the lovable philosopher/prophet calling modern man to their senses before they destroy one of the things that makes us great as a country.
Ed Abbey in all his glory and nakedness. A beautiful and troubling journey "down the river" of Abbey's writing and personal life. Aptly titled from his own words, the journals reflect a man who could be as barbaric as the barren deserts he loved so deeply. But he is also the lovable philosopher/prophet calling modern man to their senses before they destroy one of the things that makes us great as a country.
August 7, 2007
Though Edward Abbey is a complete bastard, I found his journals interesting and sometimes even inspiring. He had a vision for a simple life lived close to the earth that I really admire. I also appreciated his thoughts on writing.
November 25, 2007
in his own honest words, year by year.
May 2, 2008
my favourite part about ed abbey is that hes just so bloody human.
October 26, 2014
Sometime a little mystery is better. Detailed journal entries for most of the life of Abbey. Better the last 2/3. Hard book to get through for me.
May 12, 2009
Because despite everything, I am a child of the desert. And because I can forgive him his narcissism...Can't I? Er, can't I?
July 13, 2009
My review here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...
December 29, 2010
What a trip!
March 10, 2012
One of my favorite Abby books, taken from his collection of journals, and published after his death. Very revealing into his psyche, exploits, and living. For fans of Abbey a must read.
April 26, 2012
A must-read for any true fan of Edward Abbey.
December 6, 2012
fascinating study of a complex and thorny man.
January 26, 2014
I read a version of this that was published in 1986 and was very short. It was also not as interesting as most of Abbey's writings.
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April 4, 2007I'm addicted to Abbey.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews