The Journey Home; Some Words in Defense of the American West. Signed Copy

New York; (1977): E.P. Dutton. First Edition. Octavo. 242 pages. Signed by the author. His first nonfiction book since Desert Solitaire is alive with ranchers, dam-builders, and mountain lions. The same theme arises in The Journey Home. Abbey denies that technology and industry are inherently evil, but insists that they must be kept under control, "to prevent them from ever again becoming the self-perpetuating, ever-expanding monsters we have allowed them to become" he says that the poet of our age must begin with the scientific view of the world. There is, he says, "more charm in one 'mere' fact, confirmed by test and observation, linked to other facts through coherent theory into a rational system... In short, Abbey does not display the romanticism, or the sentimentality so often associated with extreme environmentalism. His vision is a balanced view that goes against the idea of vast developments of lands that cannot support a world with limited water and problems with air pollution that the promoter sees as a waste of great opportunities. He respects many ranchers but has also seen those who neither love nor respect the land nor their working cowboys and ranch hands. A fine copy bound in 1/4 black cloth over rust cloth covered boards, spine lettering in a red foil. There is a tiny spot on the cloth of the upper board which appears to simply be a flaw in the cloth, fine in a fine unclipped pictorial dust jacket.