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Desert Solitaire (Edward Abbey Series) Edward Abbey First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey's most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man's quest to experience nature in its purest form.
Through prose that is by turns passionate and poetic, Abbey reflects on the condition of our remaining wilderness and the future of a civilization that cannot reconcile itself to living in the natural world as well as his own internal struggle with morality. As the world continues its rapid development, Abbey's cry to maintain the natural beauty of the West remains just as relevant today as when this book was written.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edward Abbey was born in Home, Pennsylvania in 1927. In 1944, at the age of 17, Abbey set out to explore the American Southwest, bumming around the country by hitchhiking and hopping freight trains. It was during this time that Abbey developed a love of the desert, which would shape his life and his art for the next forty years. After a brief stint in the military, Abbey completed his education at the University of New Mexico and later, at the University of Edinburgh. He took employment as a park ranger and fire lookout at several different National Parks throughout his life, experiences from which he drew for his many books. Abbey died at his home in Oracle, Arizona in 1989. |
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My Baby Is Hungry/Mi polluelo tiene hambre Mrs. Maria L. Retana |
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A Giant Is Born/Nace un gigante Mrs. Maria L. Retana |
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Sonoran Desert Food Plants: Edible Uses for the Desert's Wild Bounty Charles W. Kane Sonoran Desert Food Plants is specifically designed for the hiker, camper, hunter, or survivalist who is in need of a concise, no-nonsense booklet instructing on the collection, preparation, and utilization of 50 regional edible plants. Essentially: find it, gather it, and eat it. 77 color photos, state-by-state location maps, common and scientific names, preparation and toxicity issues, and concise medicinal and related ethnobotanical uses serve as accents making Sonoran Desert Food Plants a must-have desert-rat resource.
Readers will also find Kane's approach to the material refreshingly objective and on-target: no philosophical ramblings and epicurean cookbook recipes, just stripped-down, sensical information on how to best utilize the most common wild desert food plants of the Sonoran region.
Printed and bound in the USA.
Check out Kane's Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest for a more in-depth approach to the utilization of southwestern plants for medicine. |
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Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert Terry Tempest Williams “It is a simple equation,” writes Terry Tempest Williams, “place + people = politics.” Nowhere is this more apparent than in the American West, where millions of acres of wilderness are at stake in the redrock desert of southern Utah. “How are we to find our way toward conversation?” she asks. One story at a time. Red traces Williams’s lifelong love of and commitment to the desert, as she explores what draws us to a place and keeps us there. It brings together the lyrical evocations of Coyote’s Canyon and Desert Quartet with new essays of great power and originality, essays that range from a family discussion on the desert tortoise to an investigation of slowness to startling encounters with Anasazi artifacts (including a ceremonial sash made of scarlet macaw feathers).
Pursuing the question of why America’s redrock wilderness matters to the soul of this country, Red bridges the divide between the political and the poetic and shows how this harshest and most fragile of landscapes inspires a soulful return to “wild mercy.” The preservation of wildness is not simply a political process but a spiritual one.
With grace, humor, and the subtleties of her perception, Williams reminds us of what we have forgotten in the chaos of our lives and what can be reclaimed in the stillness of the desert.
Red is further proof that the writings of Terry Tempest Williams possess a revelatory power and an emotional intelligence at once rare and authentic. |
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Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest (Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest) Charles W. Kane Covering more than 160 southwestern plant medicines, within 100 profiles, Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest clearly explains each plant's medicinal use, therapeutic indication, geographic range, botanical description, preparation, dosage, and caution(s). Common and scientific names and chemical breakdown are also specifically detailed for each plant. A complete preparation segment includes instruction on the use and making of teas, tinctures, syrups, salves, ointments, oils, washes, fomentations, and other modes of application. Readers will also find the therapeutic index, glossary, bibliography, and the exhaustive index valuable additions to the book. Nearly 100 color photos further assist the reader in plant identification. Crucifixion thorn (Castela), Elephant tree (Bursera), and Pipevine (Aristolochia) are new profiles for this edition.
First published in 2006, reprinted in 2007, and then revised for a second edition in 2009 as Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest, Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest is considered by most familiar with Kane's writing to be his seminal work. Still today this title continues to inform and inspire all who find interest in the therapeutic uses of southwestern plants.
Printed and bound in the USA. |
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The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival Craig Childs - A breakout book from a writer increasingly celebrated as the 21st-century bard of the American Southwest--a writer in the tradition of Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Terry Tempest Williams, among others. - In March 2003, Craig Childs received the Spirit of the West Literary Achievement Award, given to a writer whose body of work captures the unique spirit of the American West. - As a chronicle of adventure, as emotionally charged human drama, as confessional memoir, The Way Out is a transcendent book, a work destined to earn a lasting place in the literature of extremes. - Not since John Krakauer's bestselling Into the Wild has a book so compellingly explored the boundary between wilderness adventure and madness. |
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Soul of Nowhere Craig Childs Childs answers the call of fierce places; the more desolate the landscape, the more passionately he is drawn to it. For Childs, these are the types of terrain that sharpen the senses, and demand a physicality the modern civilized world no longer requires. Includes black-and-white photos and pen-and-ink drawings by the author. |
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A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert (Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum) The Sonoran Desert is one of the most wildly diverse and fascinating regions in the world. Covering southeastern California, the southern half of Arizona, most of Baja California, and much of the state of Sonora, Mexico, this vast area is home to an amazing variety of plants and animals. Its terrain varies dramatically, from parched desert lowlands to semiarid tropical forests and frigid subalpine meadows. A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert provides the most complete collection of Sonoran Desert natural history information ever compiled and is a perfect introduction to this biologically rich desert of North America.
The authors--experts in many fields--begin with a general look at the region's geology, paleoecology, climate, human ecology, and biodiversity. The book then looks in depth at hundreds of plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, native fishes, and invertebrates that live in the northern part of the Sonoran Desert. Throughout, the text is supplemented with anecdotes, essays, color and black-and-white photographs, maps, diagrams, and 450 finely-rendered drawings. This comprehensive, accessible natural history is written for nonscientists and will surely become an invaluable companion for nature enthusiasts, birdwatchers, hikers, students, and anyone interested in the desert Southwest.
A copublication with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum |
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The Desert Islands of Mexico's Sea of Cortez Stewart Aitchison The desert islands in the Sea of Cortez are little known except to a few intrepid tourists, sailors, and fishermen. Though at first glance these stark islands may appear barren, they are a refuge for an astounding variety of plants and animals. While many of the species are typical of the greater Sonoran Desert region, some are endemic or unique to one or two islands. For example, Isla Santa Catalina is home to the world’s only rattlesnake that has lost its ability to grow a rattle. Other islands host nesting birds, such as Isla Rasa, a tiny, flat flow of basalt lava that attracts nearly half a million elegant and royal terns and Heermann’s gulls each spring.
The Desert Islands of Mexico’s Sea of Cortez is one of the few books devoted to the biogeography of this remarkable part of the world. The book explores the geologic origin of the gulf and its islands, presents some of the basics of island biogeography, details insular lifeincluding residents of the intertidal zone and provides a brief outlook for preserving this area. More than a simple guidebook, Aitchison’s writing will take both actual and armchair travelers through a gripping tale of natural history.
Like the rest of our fragile planet, the Sea of Cortez and its islands are threatened by humans. Overfishing has eliminated or greatly diminished many fish stocks, and dams on rivers that once flowed into the gulf prevent certain nutrients from reaching the sea. The tenuousness of this area makes the book’s extraordinary photographs and the firsthand descriptions by a well-known teacher, writer, and photographer all the more compelling. |