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A review by liberrydude
All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner
3.0
A road-trip, biography, and literary critique of two authors who knew each other and loved the American West but were very different- Wallace Stegner and Edward Abbey. One was culture, the other counter culture. One grew up in the East and never returned, the other grew up in the West as a nomad and retired to the East. Roots versus roaming. No hagiography here but an objective look at two great writers.
David Gessner, the author, loves the West too but currently teaches in North Carolina as far East as you can go-Wilmington. He really misses it too. So this book is about the West as well. Discussions on tourism (the amenities economy), extraction, agriculture are all here as well as cooperation versus competition in an arid environment. The irony of the individual and self reliant West being more dependent on the Federal Government than any other region of the country. It comes down to water.
We visit Wendell Berry in Kentucky who knew both authors. Thoreau and Montaigne are compared to our Western duo.
Some nice takeaways. Here’s one Utah Tourism should use- Utah is transcendence. Going West is like being born again. The West is the geography of hope. John Wesley Powell and his declaration of interdependence.
Ready to roll on Gessner’s next book following Teddy Roosevelt in the West.
David Gessner, the author, loves the West too but currently teaches in North Carolina as far East as you can go-Wilmington. He really misses it too. So this book is about the West as well. Discussions on tourism (the amenities economy), extraction, agriculture are all here as well as cooperation versus competition in an arid environment. The irony of the individual and self reliant West being more dependent on the Federal Government than any other region of the country. It comes down to water.
We visit Wendell Berry in Kentucky who knew both authors. Thoreau and Montaigne are compared to our Western duo.
Some nice takeaways. Here’s one Utah Tourism should use- Utah is transcendence. Going West is like being born again. The West is the geography of hope. John Wesley Powell and his declaration of interdependence.
Ready to roll on Gessner’s next book following Teddy Roosevelt in the West.