Edward Abbey. Author and defender of wilderness, most famous for his two books Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang. Born in Indiana, Pa., in 1927, Abbey grew up in and around the village of Home. Although he moved to the western U.S. in 1948, books such as Appalachian Wilderness, The Journey Home, and The Fool's Progress describe his native county, where he learned to love nature. Abbey died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1989.