New Releases by Edward Abbey

Les intégrales Gallmeister Retrouvez dans une intégrale inédite les livres d''Edward Abbey ! Cette intégrale contient : - Le retour du gang - Désert solitaire - Le Gang de la clef à molette - Un fou ordinaire - Le feu sur la montagne - En descendant la rivière - Seuls sont les indomptés Icône de la contre-culture, “pionnier d’une prise de conscience” écologiste aux États-Unis, “héros subversif de l’underground”, et même “Thoreau de l’Ouest“, Edward Abbey est un auteur culte doté d’une préscience quasi prophétique, à qui on doit certaines des plus belles pages jamais écrites sur le désert. Ses livres, plus que jamais d’actualité, donnent la parole à un Ouest sauvage, libre, indompté, et par-dessus tout menacé.

« Au-delà du mur de la ville irréelle, au-delà des enceintes de sécurité coiffées de fil de fer barbelé et de tessons de bouteille, au-delà des périphériques d''asphalte à huit voies, au-delà des berges bétonnées de nos rivières temporairement barrées et mutilées, au-delà de la peste des mensonges qui empoisonnent l''atmosphère, il est un autre monde qui vous attend. C''est l''antique et authentique monde des déserts, des montagnes, des forêts, des îles, des rivages et des plaines. Allez-y. Vivez-y. Marchez doucement et sans bruit jusqu''en son cœur. » Ainsi parle Edward Abbey au début d''Un fou ordinaire. Tour à tour contestataire, contemplatif ou irrévérencieux, toujours profondément sincère, ce livre est la déclaration d''amour d''un des plus grands auteurs américains aux immensités sauvages de l''Ouest.

Révoltés de voir le somptueux désert de l’Ouest défiguré par les industriels, quatre insoumis décident d’entrer en lutte contre la « Machine ». Un vétéran du Vietnam accro à la bière et aux armes à feu, un chirurgien incendiaire entre deux âges, sa superbe maîtresse et un mormon nostalgique et polygame commencent à détruire ponts, routes et voies ferrées qui balafrent le désert. Armés de simples clefs à molette – et de quelques bâtons de dynamite –, ils doivent affronter les représentants de l’ordre et de la morale lancés à leur poursuite. Commence alors une longue traque dans le désert.

This new edition of the 1979 conservation masterpiece includes 150 unparalleled photographs of the American Desert Southwest landscape paired with Abbey’s eloquent text. When first published, Desert Images was a watershed project in the nascent environmental movement—bringing together two titans of American literature and art in their heyday. Still resonating all these decades later, Muench’s evocative photography and Abbey’s fiery, poetic text remain an unsurpassed tribute to this extraordinary American landscape. Those who imagine that the desert is merely a monotonous vista of sand and rock will be surprised by the variety of landforms, plants, and other natural phenomena shown on these pages. As Abbey wrote, “For some of those who have learned not only to live in but also to love the desert, it offers rewards greater than its visual appeal to the sense of beauty—the promise implicit in all that rugged wildness, that open, unfenced, untrammeled space—the sense of adventure, the reality of freedom, the hope of a refuge.” This photographic and literary passport to a great American wilderness will be treasured by all those who cherish the natural world.

Un recueil visionnaire, entre amour de la nature et rage face à sa destruction annoncée. Exploration des derniers grands espaces américains, ce recueil rempli d''aubes enflammées, de rivières brillantes et de canyons radieux invite à la méditation. Mais la beauté incomparable de l''Ouest sauvage ne peut faire oublier sa fragilité. Dans les pas d''Henry David Thoreau, Abbey dénonce avec passion les coups portés à notre patrimoine naturel au nom du progrès, du profit ou de la sécurité, et se déchaîne contre la cupidité humaine. Avec En descendant la rivière, nous retrouvons l''Edward Abbey poète et provocateur à son meilleur, au moment où nous avons le plus besoin de lui.

Three wild and suspenseful novels about standing your ground against the forces of destruction by the author of Desert Solitaire. From the beloved author and passionate advocate for the wilderness, these three novels follow some very memorable characters in their battles against strip miners, clear cutters, and government agencies destroying the environment: Fire on the Mountain: A New Mexico man faces off against everyone from the Atomic Energy Commission to the U.S. Air Force in a battle to keep his land . . . "One of the very best writers to deal with the American West."— The Washington Post The Monkey Wrench Gang: A motley crew of saboteurs wreak outrageous havoc on the corporations destroying the wilderness in this "wildly funny" tale ( The Houston Chronicle). "Mixes comedy and chaos with enough chase sequences to leave you hungering for more."— The San Francisco Chronicle Hayduke Lives!: George Washington Hayduke, ex-Green Beret, was last seen clinging to a rock face in the wilds of Utah as an armed posse hunted him down for his eco-radical crimes. Now he''s back, with a fiery need for vengeance . . . "Abbey''s latter-day Luddites, introduced in his novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, are back—and not a moment too soon." — The New York Times "I laughed out loud reading this book." — Los Angeles Times Book Review

Toute sa vie, John Vogelin a vécu sur son ranch, une étendue de terre desséchée par le soleil éclatant du Nouveau-Mexique et miraculeusement épargnée par la civilisation. Un pays ingrat mais somptueux, qui pour lui signifie bien davantage qu''une exploitation agricole. Comme chaque été, son petit-fils Billy, douze ans, traverse les États-Unis pour venir le rejoindre. Cette année-là, Billy découvre le ranch au bord de l''insurrection : l''US Air Force s''apprête à réquisitionner la propriété afin d''installer un champ de tir de missiles. Mais le vieil homme ne l''entend pas ainsi. Et Billy compte bien se battre à ses côtés. Le portrait d''un homme qui se bat pour ses idées, et celui d''un enfant qui réalise le prix de la liberté.

''My favourite book about the wilderness'' Cheryl Strayed, author of WildIn this shimmering masterpiece of American nature writing, Edward Abbey ventures alone into the canyonlands of Moab, Utah, to work as a seasonal ranger for the United States National Park Service.Living out of a trailer, Abbey captures in rapt, poetic prose the landscape of the desert; a world of terracotta earth, empty skies, arching rock formations, cliffrose, juniper, pinyon pine and sand sage. His summers become spirit quests, taking him in search of wild horses and Ancient Puebloan petroglyphs, up mountains and across tribal lands, and down the Glen Canyon by river. He experiences both sides of his new home; its incredible beauty and its promise of liberation, but also its isolating, cruel side, at one point discovering a dead tourist at an isolated area of the Grand Canyon.In his own irascible style, Abbey uses his time in the desert to meditate on the tension between nature and civilisation, and outlines a personal philosophy that would come to heavily influence the environmentalist movement. Now published in a special edition to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, this classic seems remarkably prescient, and has lost none of its power.

Le super-excavateur géant Goliath, le plus terrifiant engin jamais construit par l’homme, menace de saccager les déserts de l’Ouest américain. Les membres du Gang de la Clef à Molette sont bien décidés à enrayer la course du titan. Entre cette bande de quatre insoumis et la machine industrielle s’engage un combat désespéré. Les usines explosent, les bulldozers s’évanouissent dans la nature... Contre l’asservissement des esprits, tous les coups sont permis ! Suite du mythique Gang de la Clef à Molette, Le Retour du Gang, révolte nostalgique et chant d’amour aux espaces sauvages, est le dernier roman d’Edward Abbey.

A mix of fiction and essays by the author described as "the Thoreau of the American West" (Larry McMurtry, The Washington Post). Edward Abbey himself compiled this volume representing some of his greatest work—including selections from such novels as The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Brave Cowboy, and Black Sun, as well as a number of expressive and acerbic essays. Renowned for inspiring modern environmentalists—though his interests ranged as widely as the landscapes he loved—Abbey offers an entertaining introduction to his writing, including excerpts from the autobiographical Desert Solitaire, in addition to his own sketches illustrating the text throughout.

"Abbey''s latter-day Luddites, introduced in his novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, are back—and not a moment too soon" ( The New York Times). George Washington Hayduke, ex-Green Beret, was last seen clinging to a rock face in the wilds of Utah as an armed posse hunted him down for his eco-radical crimes. Now he''s back, with a fiery need for vengeance . . . This sequel to Edward Abbey''s cult classic brings back the old gang of environmental warriors, as they battle a fundamentalist preacher intent on turning the Grand Canyon into a uranium mine—in "a fine novel, combative and comic, anarchistic and ultimately redemptive" ( Albuquerque Journal). "I laughed out loud reading this book." — Los Angeles Times Book Review

A motley crew of saboteurs wreaks havoc on the corporations destroying America''s Western wilderness in this "wildly funny, infinitely wise" classic ( The Houston Chronicle). When George Washington Hayduke III returns home from war in the jungles of Southeast Asia, he finds the unspoiled West he once knew has been transformed. The pristine lands and waterways are being strip mined, dammed up, and paved over by greedy government hacks and their corrupt corporate coconspirators. And the manic, beer-guzzling, rabidly antisocial ex-Green Beret isn''t just getting mad. Hayduke plans to get even. Together with a radical feminist from the Bronx; a wealthy, billboard-torching libertarian MD; and a disgraced Mormon polygamist, Hayduke''s ready to stick it to the Man in the most creative ways imaginable. By the time they''re done, there won''t be a bridge left standing, a dam unblown, or a bulldozer unmolested from Arizona to Utah. Edward Abbey''s most popular novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang is an outrageous romp with ultra-serious undertones that is as relevant today as it was in the early days of the environmental movement. The author who Larry McMurtry ( Lonesome Dove) once dubbed "The Thoreau of the American West" has written a true comedic classic with brains, heart, and soul that more than justifies the call from the Los Angeles Times Book Review that we should all "praise the earth for Edward Abbey!" "Mixes comedy and chaos with enough chase sequences to leave you hungering for more."— The San Francisco Chronicle

A cowboy takes on the forces of twentieth century tyranny in a tale by "the Thoreau of the American West" that became the classic film Lonely Are the Brave (Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lonesome Dove). A rugged individualist and sometime ranch hand, Jack Burns has no love for the modern world. He is a man out of time, riding his horse through a Southwestern landscape corrupted by concrete, shopping centers, and superhighways. A stubborn loner, he lives by a personal moral code that often sets him at odds with contemporary society. And he wouldn''t have it any other way. When Jack''s brazen attempt to free a jailed friend fails, the "anarchist cowboy" becomes an outlaw overnight. Suddenly he and his chestnut mare are racing toward the New Mexican high country with the state police, the military, and the FBI in hot pursuit. His private war against authority has reached a dangerous new level. But if the powerful forces aligning against him think that Jack is going to go quietly, they''ve got another think coming. The Houston Chronicle called Edward Abbey "a fresh breath from the farther reaches and canyons of the diminishing frontier." The bestselling author of The Monkey Wrench Gang delivers a stirring tribute to individualism and the vanishing American hero. Brought to the big screen in 1962 as Lonely Are the Brave—a major motion picture starring Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau— The Brave Cowboy is a moving and thought-provoking fable of the modern American West.

"But hell, I do like to write letters. Much easier than writing books." And write letters Ed Abbey did. In his famous -- or infamous -- 45-year career, Abbey''s cards and letters became as legendary as his books for their wit, vitriol, and ability to speak truth to power. Published here for the first time, the letters offer a fascinating, often hilarious glimpse into the mind of one of America''s most iconoclastic and beloved authors. No subject was too banal, too arcane, or too deep for Abbey to expound on: sex, cheerleaders, Mormons, Aspen, and the Bond girls are covered as gleefully as Stegner, Dylan, Chomsky, Buddhism, and betrayal. Whether scolding an editor to simplify ("I''ve had to waste hours erasing that storm of fly-shit on the typescript") or skewering the chicken-hawk proponents of the war in Vietnam, Abbey''s righteous indignation gives hope and inspiration to a generation that desperately needs both.

Henry Lightcap, a man facing a terminal illness, sets out on a trip across America accompanied only by his dog, Solstice, and discovers the beauty and majesty of the Southwest.

Ce livre, un des plus beaux inspirés par le désert américain, est un chant d''amour à la sauvagerie du monde. C''est aussi un terrible coup de colère : après avoir connu la vie solitaire et sauvage dans un coin perdu de l''Utah, l''auteur revient dix ans plus tard pour découvrir que, là aussi, le " progrès " est passé. " Un chef-d''œuvre... Edward Abbey est le gardien du monde " (Yves Berger, La Pierre et le Saguaro). " Le Thoreau de l''Ouest américain " (Larry Mc Murtry).

“The natural world, as we call it, has already become remote, out of reach, mysterious, in the minds of urban and suburban Americans. They see the wilderness disappearing, slipping away, receding into an inaccessible past. But they are mistaken. That world can still be rescued… that is my main excuse for this book.”—Edward Abbey You are about to visit some of the most exciting places on earth. Not the sort of excitement that makes morning headlines or the nightly news. Instead it is the excitement that comes from experiencing the natural world as it always has been and should be, and seeing human beings living in tune with its subtlest rhythms. In Australian cattle country and in the primitive outback. On a desert island off Mexico and in the Sierra Madres. On the Rio Grande and in the great Southwest. On Lake Powell in Utah and in the living American desert. It is adventure. It is enlightenment. It is vintage Abbey. “I have been along a few of Mr. Abbey’s roads. He sees much more than I did. Indeed, reading him is often better than being there was.”—John Leonard, author of Reading for My Life

Down the River is a collection of essays both timeless and timely. It is an exploration of the abiding beauty of some of the last great stretches of American wilderness on voyages down rivers where the body and mind float free, and the grandeur of nature gives rise to meditations on everything from the life of Henry David Thoreau to the militarization of the open range. At the same time, it is an impassioned condemnation of what is being done to our natural heritage in the name of progress, profit, and security. Filled with fiery dawns, wild and shining rivers, and radiant sandstone canyons, it is charged as well with heartfelt, rampageous rage at human greed, blindness, and folly. It is, in short, Edward Abbey at his best, where and when we need him most.

Anthology of rural American writing by contemporary writers filled with humor, tragedy, and down home characters.

In this wise and lyrical book about landscapes of the desert and the mind, Edward Abbey guides us beyond the wall of the city and asphalt belting of superhighways to special pockets of wilderness that stretch from the interior of Alaska to the dry lands of Mexico.