Fifty years ago, Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire was published to decent reviews but little fanfare. “Another book dropped down the bottomless well. Into oblivion,” wrote a disheartened Abbey in his ...

During the past couple of weeks, I reread “Desert Solitaire,” by Edward Abbey. It’s the first time I’ve reexamined it in over a decade. That long interval seems surprising to me since — not to be ...