Our Head Receptionist, Sue Edgeworth, greets all our visitors, deals with their concerns and questions, sets them off on their tour of the Museum and still finds time to make a #XmasReads suggestion. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness is an autobiographical work by Edward Abbey (1927–89), published originally in 1968. ‘Edward Abbey – a loner, an early eco-warrior, an irascible rebel and desert anarchist. Was this the right candidate for a seasonal park ranger in Utah’s Arches National Monument as it was called then? Someone who had a dislike of tourists and their cars – you cannot see anything from a car; you’ve got to walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. Whilst enjoying his first two summers in this dramatically scenic Park his third and final one was marred by the intrusion of industrial tourism and the ubiquitous recreational vehicle. He writes of his experience during this time with both eloquence and vitriol and the book is now regarded as one of the finest nature narratives in American literature. Anyone who has visited the desert region of the American South West and fallen in love with it, as have I, will enjoy this journey with Mr Abbey through this period in his enigmatic life.’
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 12:11:56 +0000
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