Customer Reviews

Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey

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"He hiked through the high desert," Jack Loeffler writes about his friend, Ed Abbey (1927-89), "inhaling the perfume of juniper, feeling the clean hot wind against his face. He watched the circling buzzards and wondered if he should surrender, lie down and die, to provide them with one good meal. Or hike down into the maze and disappear into the ghostly silence. Or relinquish himself to a magnificent rapid in Cataract Canyon. He was frightened by the sound of his own breathing in the vast emptiness where he must keep his own company or lose control" (p. 85). For more than twenty years, Loeffler and Abbey were best friends, and they guzzled beer, shared hundreds of campfires, and hiked thousands of desert miles together (p. 3). "We were companeros," Loeffler says in the Preface to his 285-page biographical memoir. "And as long as I continue to live, we shall be" (p. 10).

Abbey encouraged us to "follow the truth no matter where it leads" (p. 4), and Loeffler does just that in drawing from Abbey's journals, FBI files, personal interviews, correspondence, and conversations he had with Abbey "while hiking, driving, river running, or just staring into campfires" (pp. 287-88), to bring his friend to life in these pages. Along the way, we find Abbey hitchhiking and hopping freight trains across America at age seventeen (pp. 18-20), falling in love repeatedly (he was married five times), attacking billboards at night (p. 38), studying in Scotland on a Fulbright scholarship (p. 39), working as a park ranger in the "bright sunlight of the American Southwest" (p. 79), down on his knees at Glen Canyon Dam, praying for an earthquake (p. 108), dancing naked and "clapping and howling" in the sunshine of Aztec Peak (p. 154), rallying for Earth First!, cussing red ants (p. 9), and trekking 110 miles through the Sonoran Desert "alone with his thoughts" (p. 162). Whereas the first four chapters of Loeffler's book covers much of the same biographical information contained in James Calahan's recent biography, ED ABBEY: A LIFE (2001), in Chapters 5 through 8, Loeffler introduces us to the friend he knew in Ed Abbey. In fact, Loeffler even describes digging Abbey's undisclosed desert grave in the book's final pages. "Every now and then, I visit Ed's grave and pour him a beer," Loeffler tells us (p. 4).

This truly fascinating book will appeal to any Abbey fan. Personal, adventurous, and intimate, Loeffler's "portrait" offers new insights into the "heavy chemistry" of Abbey the loner, the wilderness anarchist, the desert rat, the gifted writer with an evolved mind, the husband, father and friend, and into the "man who would not be dominated by anyone" (p. 61).

G. Merritt

Adventures with Ed, by his longtime friend and fellow sabot, Jack Loeffler, offers an intimate look into the life of Edward Abbey that gets to the very bedrock of his existence of a writer and as a lover of the natural world. Although I have read and reread almost all of Abbey's work, this book allowed me to integrate and better understand the persona that Abbey constructed through his work and the sensitive, reticent man that he was in everyday life. While Loeffler's biography covers Abbey's entire life, the emphasis is on his life and work after he met Loeffler after the publication of Desert Solitaire until his death in 1988. Thus, this work is not simply a chronicle of Abbey's life as a writer and environmentalist, it is also the story of two friends who shared an unabiding love of nature and especially of the Southwestern desert.

Perhaps, one of the best qualities of this book is the way Loeffler illustrates Abbey's view of the world, which shaped his evolution as a writer, through the retelling of conversations and debates that they had on their many trips into the deserts of the Southwest and Mexico. In this way Loeffler has performed a great service for anyone who desires to better understand the work, as well as the life, of Edward Abbey, by providing many intimate details that reveal the forces that influenced Abbey's perception of the world and his place in it. It is impossible to read Abbey's work and not be moved, sometimes by his sense of humor and satiric wit or by his stunningly beautiful descriptions of what many see only as a desolate wasteland. This book is a must for anyone who wants to travel, albeit vicariously, with Abbey and Loeffler along the dusty roads of their many expeditions and trips into the desert, which allows us all to get a small glimpse into Abbey's life, which allows us to better understand his purpose as a writer.

Reading Adventures with Ed by Jack Loeffler was a truly wonderful experience. Mr. Loeffler does well in combining the biographical with his own experiences with Ed. I was sad when I'd finished the book because the author presented such a beatiful friendship, one which transcended anything we can articulate, including mere physicality, and I wanted to read more, keep reading until I understood what they understood through such a tight friendship.

At the same time that Mr. Loeffler presents Ed Abbey in a realistic light, including his faults of which some were publicly criticized, he counters such facts with his own truths, those he gained through nights and nights in the desert with his friend. He highlights several of these trips, and in doing so, gives us wonderful conversations of two intelligent, insightful men trying to figure out the world and the human animal--no easy task.

If you are looking for a biography to futher your enjoyment of Abbey's work, you'll get that with Adventures with Ed, but thanks to Jack Loeffler, you'll get even more than that. You'll get a friendship so strong it extends past life and into death. If an afterlife exists, both Ed and Jack will be there (someday), driving their trucks and sharing beers over a campfire.

Among the pictures included in the book is one of Loeffler and Abbey side by side, with Loeffler's arm around Abbey's shoulders, apparantly trying to pull himself up to Abbey's tall stature. That picture sums up my impressions of the book. Although it gives some rare and quite special experiences which show private sides of Abbey's character and personality, I couldn't get past the impression that Loeffler is using Abbey as a platform to legitimize himself--imagine the nerd in high school who dotes over the quarterback, making sure that everyone knows that they're friends.

I think that the best parts of the book are in the second half. The first half is a badly organized lesson in anarchy, and a poorly veiled attempt to establish Loeffler as a legitimate anarchist philosopher. The second half provides insights into Abbey's persona, and Loeffler does a pretty good job at painting a believable picture of Abbey, one that I hadn't seen before. I really liked the story of the death and burial, and the road trip along the river in Texas where Ed wanted to "go for a swim."

Overall, I'd give it a 2.5 star rating, but rounded up to a three because it does provide some good insights into a person I find increasingly fascinating. Sorry Loeffler, it's Ed, not you.

This is the book we've been waiting for. While Jim's (Cahalan) book _Ed Abbey...a life_ captures the most intimate timeframe of Abbey's life, Jack's book shares with us the passion that inspired Abbey to write. And, that passion has become a big part of our mantra for the American Desert Southwest. Only Jack Loeffler knew Abbey well enough to have written this book. Thanks Jack, and keep praying for that one perfect earthquake.

It would be hard to top the review by Philip Carl of July 2005. I enthusiastically agree with everything he said.

This is an intimate portrait of Ed Abbey, in all his guises, with all the warts on, from a very close friend who knew him from about age 30 until his deathbed. It's clear from the book that they were very close friends. Abbey even relied on Loeffler to ensure that he didn't die in a hospital, which is something Abbey feared and loathed. So, Loeffler was in a position to know.

I am a die-hard fan of Ed Abbey and I own all his books except Jonathan Troy (the price of which collectors have pushed through the roof and which Abbey himself didn't like.) Abbey, for how autobiographical most of his writing was, really revealed little about his personal life in his books. I was hoping for a much closer look at Abbey. I got it in this book. And, I emerged wondering whether I would have really liked to have been close friends with him, as I thought I did. Probably I would have in my 20's (wild mountain-man years.) But now, I think I would find him too prickly. And too irresponsible. You find out just how bad a husband and father he was, until very late in life. No wonder he didn't want to say too much about his personal life. You also learn how much he regretted not being there for his children. Like I said, all the warts. Or at least all the warts Loeffler knew about.

A previous review that I read before buying this book complained that Loeffler couldn't have remembered all the conversations with Abbey in such detail. I can remember important moments with my friends to that level of detail. If I had to write them out, sure, some quotes wouldn't be 100% accurate; but they would convey the gist and feeling and most of the best bits exactly. The same review complained of less than 100% accuracy in the biographical section at the beginning of the book. Seems like picking academic nits to me. I'm not doing research. If Loeffler says he was born in a different Appalachian town a few miles away from the correct one, so what? Does that really affect anything important?

[Seriously, I wonder if Mr. (zero-stars) Rubio actually read Abbey's books or knew anything about him. Abbey laid out his beliefs (if not his personal life) and his prejudices clearly in his published writing. To say that you liked and respected him, "Before reading this book I held a deep respect for Abbey's work and admired his beliefs and all of what he stood for," and then write the littany of hate against him in the review below just amazes me. That review sounds like someone with an ax to grind against Abbey. Abbey: an imperfect man, like so many great artists. Does that devalue his work or his arguments? I think not. Written like a 12-year-old? Don't believe a word of that. He doesn't get the jokes and word-play in the dialogue?]

As a big Abbey fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I actually got choked up a few times. Loeffler and Abbey were clearly great good friends and knew how to enjoy life together, in spite of Abbey's basically dark temperament. This tells the story of their friendship and of Abbey's life before they met. Detailed, heartfelt, warm memories of a friend. Once I got into the personal stories of their times together, I couldn't put the book down.

Highly recommended to any fan of Abbey.

I knew going into this book that the author, Jack Loeffler, was Abbey's friend. It became clear after reading Adventures with Ed just how close of a friend Loeffler was to him. I mean these two guys seemed to spend a considerable amount of time hiking, drinking beer, and discussing the meaning of life. And without a doubt, it's reflected in the second half of the book.

The first part serves as a solid biography of Abbey's childhood, short tour in the military during WWII, academic wanderings, and general carousing around for women. Loeffler does his homework and provides key points along the way that help the reader understand how Abbey's early searching shaped his philosophy. Abbey's strong embrace of anarchism, for instance, rooted early and grew stronger during his UNM days.

The last half of the book, or the post-meeting-Jack Loeffler period is an intimate look at Abbey the writer and friend. Loeffler's fondness for Abbey is strong and comes through on these pages. The reader gets to tag around with Jack and Ed on a number of extended outings into the high-desert wilderness.

Overall, Loeffler provides a unique, insider's portrayal of one of the most out-spoken and influential writers on protecting and embracing the wild characteristics of our nature world.

Several comments.

First, while I don't go to the Church of Ed, nonetheless, I read a fairly large amount of, and wide variety of, environmentalist, natural history and other writings of the American West. And, I had never heard of Loeffler as an author.

Considering the claim that Ed "wanted him" to write this book, I don't know why. I'll take Loeffler at his word, while saying if Abbey wanted an inside baseball/personal memoir in the third person, I think Peacock would have been a better choice.

Beyond the "Saint Ed" angle, Loeffler wanders a lot, especially in the early part of the book. And, he never tells us WHY Abbey became an anarchist. Nor, from a personal rather than a professional viewpoint, does he ponder the question of how an anarchist could be celebrated so much as a naturalist and even an environmentalist. Also, he doesn't look at how a man with a lot of conservative or libertarian opinions could be so celebrated by a fair number of liberal types.

Next, Loeffler, while noting Abbey claimed on the surface that he had guilt over wrecking his marriages, at the same time, until his last marriage to Clarke, repeatedly defended male philandering as all in the genes. Loeffler doesn't go below the surface as much as he could.

Third, while chiding Abbey about his opinion of certain cultures and groups at times, Loeffler still gives him a partial pass. Do I think Abbey was a racist? No. Was he some level or kind of bigot? Yes.

Above all, contra Loeffler, alcoholic-level drinking is about the only cause of varices; I'm betting he, and Peacock, not only don't want to look at Abbey having a drinking problem, but don't want to look at themselves in this regard, too. Abbey drank more than once in the last couple of years after claiming he had quit, knowing it just made the problem worse.

And, Loeffler doesn't tie this with the other threads above. Marital cheating and numerous extra marriages is about the No. 1 sociological marker for alcoholism, for example.

An anarchism that comes off as the public outbursts of an arrested childhood, if not the No. 2 marker for alcoholism, would probably be in the Top 5.

And, contrary those who DO worship at the Church of Saint Ed, Edward Cahalan's "academic" bio is a better book overall, even though he misses the alcoholism angle; I give it a solid four-star rating overall. Plus, if you're not so familiar with Abbey, or the Church of Saint Ed, it's a much better starting point.

That said, there's a better bio waiting to be written than both Calahan's detached -- and Western-unfamiliar -- effort on the one hand and Loeffler's on the other.

Western poet Gary Snyder, somewhat an anarchist himself and an acquaintance, though not a close personal friend, of Abbey's, would be the type of person to fit the bill.

Edward Abbey is one of my all-time favorite writers. He described his own writings very well when he called them,
"An antidote to dispair." The books and essays written by this uncommonly brave and honest fellow have been that and more to me since I discovered Ed's writings back in the seventies.

Jack Loeffler was one of Ed Abbey's closest friends. I knew of him, and I had seen him on some of the short movies about Ed. I had no idea, however, that he could write so well.

Jack's book about his good friend shares insights into Abbey, the man and the author, that are unavailable even in Ed's own writings. Adventures is one of the best books about Ed that I have read. It is, in fact, one of the best books about anything that I have read.

Jack Loeffler's chronicle of his life with Ed Abbey is not only a fine tribute to the iconoclastic defender of the desert Southwest, but an engaging and delightful tale of two friends and their travel's though life's adventures. Jack brings Ed to life in a way no chronological biography could ever approach. The images and stories in "Adventures with Ed" reveal the friendship and warmth that marked this long relationship and bring to light the lives of these two companeros. This one's a keeper!