Edward Abbey
Rayne Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Author and defender of wilderness, most famous for his two books Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang. Born in Indiana, Pa., in 1927, Abbey grew up in and around the village of Home. Although he moved to the western U.S. in 1948, books such as Appalachian Wilderness, The Journey Home, and The Fool's Progress describe his native county, where he learned to love nature. Abbey died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1989.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Edward Abbey, one of America's fiercest literary defenders of wild country, was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, in 1927 and grew up around the village of Home. Though he made his name writing of the desert Southwest in Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang, works like Appalachian Wilderness and The Journey Home return to the green hills of his native county, where he first learned to love the natural world. He moved west in 1948 and died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1989.
Why it matters
Abbey became a defining voice of the modern American environmental movement, and this marker roots that voice in the Appalachian landscape that first shaped it.
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