Customer Reviews

Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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"Postcards from Ed" reveal an Edward Abbey that was complex -- provocative and humorous. The letters are well chosen to show Abbey's warmth towards family, anger toward establishment and delight in friendship. More than anything, Abbey's letters create a picture of a man without pretense. Secondhand clothes, trailer-living, rundown trucks and cheap beer were good enough for him so long as he could venture into the deserts of the Southwest to clear his mind and feed his senses. If he wasn't obsessed he was probably depressed. If he didn't have a deadline he was likely lazy. Or so he said.

He didn't tolerate superficial relationships well -- "Yes, to hell with it. Let's call an end to this inane, pointless, worthless pretense at communication. If you're not bored with it, I certainly am." But he knew the value of a good friendship -- "So, let me know what you [Wendell Berry] think, if you care to trouble yourself about this. I would not want to risk endangering the kind of feelings you've shown me in the past for the sake of mere polemical spleen. Your friendship is far more important to me than striving to win points in a formal debate."

He complained, but with a touch of humor -- "This is a complaint. . . What kind of people are you hiring as rangers these days? Where do you find them? They look and act like cops - not rangers - and the next time one of these armed and uniformed goons bothers me I'm going to try to find out if he knows anything about the history, wildlife, plant life or geology of Saguaro National Monument." And - "Your reviewer . . . gives us a good forthright description of the book's author. As the undersigned can testify from personal acquaintance, Edward Abbey is indeed an "arrogant," "xenophobic," "puerile," "smug" and "dopey" sort of fellow. So far, fair enough. But what about the book . . . [he] forgot to review the book."

In the Forward to the book, Terry Tempest Williams wonders what Abbey would be saying right now if he were still alive. "Postcards from Ed" gives us more than a clue. Abbey would not be surprised by today's converging catastrophes and our, so called, war on terror. He might say we get what we deserve. "Postcards from Ed" is another chance to hear Abbey's prophetic voice. I suspect he would say, "Hey, you're still alive, wake up!"

This book is a great reminder of how far ahead of his time Abbey was. Issues he was concerned about 40 or 50 years ago are argued with a passion and intellect that is missing from today's political discourse. Also missing today is the humor and constructive anger which served as an undercurrent for much of his writing. Beyond all this literary mumbo-jumbo, Abbey still makes for a great read. This is possibly the last of his writing to be published. Savor it.

This book collects the letters of Edward Abbey, author and provocateur. If you don't know and enjoy his books such as "Desert Solitaire" or "The Monkey Wrench Gang," you should read those first. If you've read his books and want more Ed, then this is the book for you.

The letters are arranged chronologically but fall into a few recurring categories. He writes often to his agents and his publishers, both about money and about his works in progress. You see glimpses of how Ed works through these letters. He also wrote a large number of letters to various newspapers, some under pseudonyms. He wrote, of course, many letters to his friends, and these are surprisingly blunt. I sometimes marveled that he had any friends left. There are surprisingly few letters to his family, even though his oldest children lived some distance from him over the years covered in these letters. His family side does not come across at all well, except for pride in his very young children with fifth wife.

These short letters are, to varying degrees, pithy, insightful, iconoclastic and funny. They show some different sides of Edward Abbey but won't really surprise any fans of his other books.

[Three stars because the book has a pretty narrow audience; it's probably a four star book for hardcore Abbey fans.]

I was a bit skeptical about the format of this book: reprinting many of Ed Abbey's prolific output of letters and notecards. I put off reading it for a long time. I may not have even bought it in the first place, except that I am a rabid [sic] Abbey fan and this promised a few more nibbles of his caustic wit and incisive puncturing of the pompous (or just the very large.) I'm very glad I did: This is a fun, big helping of more of Ed to enjoy -- with a slightly different and more intimate angle. (We did lose him WAY too soon, too young, too long gone; the world is a much poorer place without him. Tomorrow, it will be 20 years (!) since he passed.)

The book is a compilation of selected letters and postcards written by Abbey throughout his life. They deal with, mainly, literature, the environment, and some on his personal life or his friends' personal lives. It's a bit like a 30,000-foot autobiography told in correspondence.

The great thing about it, and in contrast to his journals (the published versions of which I own), is that each letter or note is like a condensed essay. It's not just rambling, like most of the journals, interesting as they are. These short pieces were written for specific audiences with specific purposes in mind; and this is what makes them special. Abbey brought his craft to bear on them, because they mattered to him. If you can use the metaphor of an oil-painting for his novels and say a wood-cut or lithograph for one of his essays and doodles for his journals, I would call these short pieces line drawings. Very enjoyable line drawings, well-executed and with plenty of vigor.

Highly recommended to any fan of Ed Abbey.

I couldn't wait for this excellent collection of Cactus Ed's letters and infamous postcards to finally come out, if only because like all of us here I've been missing Ed all these years since his demise in 1989. This world is definitely a lesser place without Ed's literary contributions and overall inspiration. Way back in 1980 Edward Abbey mailed me my very own postcard, in response to a letter I had sent him only a week earlier. I've kept that card tucked into my autographed 1st edition of Desert Solitaire ever since. Now I have moved it into the pages of Postcards From Ed, which only seems right.
I hope I am wrong and there is more unpublished Abbey stuff out there. To a lifelong Abbey fan like myself it's all good, all still very relevant, still inspiring. Ed was an American Classic, in his writing and in his life. He will endure, as he should.

Published author David Peterson presents Postcards From Ed: Dispatches and Salvos From An American Iconoclast, a gathering of postcards and letters from American writer and cult hero Edward Abbey (1927-1989), known for his books "Desert Solitaire" and "The Monkey Wrench Gang", and also known for his short-tempered personality, which earned him the nickname "Cactus Ed". Arranged chronologically, most of the letters and postcards are brief, often packed with zest and a healthy dash of wit; notes and an index round out this engaging insight into a quintessential American psyche. Rarely is reading someone else's mail this much fun. Highly recommended. "I also drive slowly and 'tranquilly' at all times except when approaching an intersection. Based on mathematical reasoning, verified (so far) by experience, I believe it to be a fact that the faster you flash through an intersection the less your chance of colliding with the opposition. Do not be distracted by traffic lights, of whatever shade of blue or pink; their only function is to confuse the timorous."

This is a tought book to review simply because the memory of Edward Abbey (b.1927 d.1989)is still so fresh. If you disliked the writings of Ed Abbey you wouldn't read this book if they gave it away, the subject was that kind of writer.

If you read and enjoyed Ed. Abbey, I include mydelf in this group, it is a fun read down memory lane. Abbey's two most influential books are "Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness" who his fan consider to be the 20th. Centuries "Walden" and "The Monkey Wrench Gang" the inspiration for "Earth First" are widely refered to here. The auther was neither a Thoreau nor a bomb throwing arsonist. True he was an excentrict in the image of one of his heros Hunter Thompson, but he did know the limits, Abbey did enjoy the debauchery's of life be it women, drugs, booze or guns. Shooting up a discared home appliance while drunk followed by rough and tumble sex was a favorite way for Abbey to reduce stress.

"Postcards from Ed" is a collection of his letters to friends, he often wrote them on a postcards, thus the title that David Petterson chose. They are only a small sample of what he wrote, most have been lost or destroyed by the receivers because they were to blunt and/or insulting. Those that did make it into the book will be enjoyed by his fans as reminders about the man and the stages of his life. There are no return letters so it's strickly a one way trip. All the language and blunt insults that have come to be associated with Ed Abbey are here.

David Petersen knew writer Ed Abbey and respected him highly. It shows in both collections David has put together about ol' Cactus Ed. This book, a collection of Abbey's letters to friends, family, other writers, business associates, publishers, and letters to the editor and op-ed sections of dozens of newpapers, is a very fine read if you have any desire to gain a deeper understanding of one of the more talented writers this country has produced. There is humor in these letters, as well as sadness, disappointment, love, teasing, heckling, arguing, and yes, some strong disapproval.

I recommend this and Dave Petersen's and Ed Abbey's other books very highly.

Edward Abbey never shrunk from speaking his mind, as evidenced in this collection of diverse cards and notes as in his other writings. Abbey--almost invariably called an "iconoclast" rather than merely a social critic--combined an attachment to nature, particularly of the American Southwest where he lived, with an animosity toward large organizations, particularly corporations and the Federal government. Many of the selections are letters-to-the-editor, with others to friends and relatives and some to acquaintances. In one to the Tucson Weekly, he writes that he is castigated by both "left-wing" and "right-wing" dogmatists. Abbey's gift of being able to antagonize radicals of all strips as well as the muddled masses of robotic bureaucrats and bedazed citizenry testifies to his distinctiveness and provocativeness. What he was on to is further communicated in these selections.

Great stuff! Ed's missives are wonderful to read. This book belongs right along with Confessions of a Barbarian.