It was released in 1975 — about the same time I started high school — and the controversy it caused immediately made it an attractive read to a teenager.

Abbey also wrote Desert Solitaire, a stunning book that is likely his best work, though it gets lost in the controversy surrounding the Monkey Wrench Gang. From Solitaire:

"This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. A houseboat in Kashmir, a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains, a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country, a greasy alley near the Hoboken waterfront, or even, possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender, velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio or Rome – there’s no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment."

Everyone has their own "most beautiful place on earth" and fly fishermen are no exception, which is why some of us feel the outdoors (and the wilderness) are worth fighting for.

For the record, I’ve never Monkey Wrenched anyone’s project, but I sure as hell understand the impulse.

Abbey Quote:

"Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners."

To Abbey’s list, the Underground would like to add the likes of Nestle, Westlands, PacifiCorp and the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors. Feel free to add your own in the comments section.

Abbey died in 1989 and his final resting place — where he was buried by his friends — remains a mystery, which is probably as it should be.

See you in the bookshelves, Tom Chandler.