While best known for his fiction, Edward Abbey was also an enthusiastic creator of verse. Earth Apples, Abbey’s first and only collection of poetry, adds to his literary reputation as an irreverent writer. Whether writing about vast desert landscapes, New York City, or a love of bawdy women, Abbey’s verse is eloquent and unapologetically passionate. The poems gathered here, published digitally for the first time, are culled from Abbey’s journals and give an insightful and unique glance into the mind of this literary legend.

Billy Vogelin Starr returns home to his beloved New Mexico after nine months away at school only to find his grandfather in a standoff with the United States Government. It seems the government wants to take his land and turn it into an extension of the White Sands Missile Range.

lthough facing the combined powers of the U.S. County Sheriff, the Department of the Interior, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the U.S. Air Force, John Vogelin stands his ground; he does this because to Vogelin, his land is his life and when backed into a corner, a tough old man like him will come out fighting. Here Abbey gives us a page turner that shows us what one determined individual can do in the face of overwhelming legal and military power as he fights to save his livelihood.

Here is the only collection of writings compiled by Abbey himself, who writes in his own words, "to present what I think is both the best and most representative of my writing--so far." Included in this collection are generous selections of his best novels, such as The Brave Cowboy, Black Sun, and his classic The Monkey Wrench Gang, as well as many of his other, more expressive and acerbic essays.

To add further interest, Abbey’s own sketches are scattered throughout the text. This rich offering of fiction and prose is a testament to a singular American author, and offers an opportunity to become better acquainted with his abundant body of work.