I first
knew the name Annie Dillard through Edward Abbey. I read everything he wrote, except for his fiction, which I did not like. He wrote The Monkey Wrench Gang, and due to that was adopted as a mascot by Earth First!, s false-front environmental group used to discredit true conservationists. I doubt that Ed knew he was being used, but in his shoes I probably would have seized on the added publicity too. He lived on book sales royalties, and it was not much. As I recall, he sold the rights to MRG for a nice sum, but that book is still waiting to be made into a movie.
I read MRG and then avoided all of his other fiction. His characters were too clever and overwrought, and there was just too much self-destructiveness within it. The idea was that a new breed of environmentalist would step forward, and start doing destruction of projects that were anti-nature. The big one in Abbey’s time was the Glen Canyon Dam, a water project built in the 1950s over the objections of then true-to-heart conservationists. Abbey and others would take time to paddle what would later become the catchment area for Lake Powell. His writing about that and other natural wonders of the Western United States, especially the deserts, is why I read it all, everything he wrote, except the fiction.
David Brower (1912-2000) came out in favor of Glen Canyon, which I think went a long way in helping the project go forward. He was prominent and well-known at that time. His words carried weight. Later Brower would express regret that he came out as he did. To me, suspicious Sam, it told me that Brower, like Earth First!, was false-front. That’s pretty common in the environmental movement.
