“[I]t is the writer's duty to write fiction which promotes virtue, the good, the beautiful, and above all, the true. ... It is the writer's duty to hate injustice, to defy the powerful, and to speak for the voiceless. To be ... the severest critics of our own societies.”

American author and essayist

Edward Abbey was an American author and essayist, known for his environmental writing and outspoken criticism of public land policy. He lived from 1927 to 1989. Abbey wrote both fiction and nonfiction, and his work is closely associated with the American West and with a hard-edged defense of wild places. His best-known books include The Monkey Wrench Gang and Desert Solitaire. He was also noted for anarchist political views, which often shaped the force and independence of his voice.