Throughout history, there have always been controversial figureheads of movements; whether it is race, politics, the environment, universal suffrage or illegal immigration; the list is long. Some are called fanatics. Some are called heretics or hysterics. Some were murdered. Some have lived full lives. A dominant characteristic has been poor understanding of a message, due to poor historical memory or lack of critical thinking. One of the most misunderstood figures of the 20th century was the anarchist writer Edward Abbey. The first of five children, Edward Paul Abbey was born on January 29, 1927 in the small village of Home, Pennsylvania. After learning to read at the age of four, he became an incessant reader and, displaying an ego that would prevail until his death, he lorded his intelligence over his siblings as he was growing up. His father, Paul Revere Abbey, had considerable influence on the Abbey's children through his radical politics and frequent quotes from Walt Whitman. Howard Abbey, Edward's younger brother, described their father as "an anti-capitalist, anti-religion, anti-mainstream, anti-alcohol, anti-war and anti-anyone who disagreed with him", and he would espouse the virtues of Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas, Soviet Communism and the “great” Bill Haywood. Before being drafted to fight in World War II at the age of seventeen in 1944, Abbey was struck by his family's wanderlust and hitchhiked. across America. After reaching California, Abbey learned to ride the train from an old tramp, after failed attempts to hitchhike in the scorching summer heat of the Mojave Desert outside Needles. Two train rides and a night in jail later, he was in Albuquerque buying a bus-tic...... middle of paper...... of our times as best I can can see it... Oppose, resist, and sabotage the contemporary drift towards a global technocratic police state, whatever its ideological coloring. I write to oppose injustice, to challenge power, and to speak for the voiceless,” and Abbey remained true to this philosophy throughout his life. Works Cited Abbey, Edward. One life at a time, please. New York: Heny Holt and Company, 1988. Bishop Jr, James. Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist: The Life and Legacy of Edward Abbey. New York: Macmillan, 1994. James Hepworth, Gregory McNamee, eds. Resist Much, Obey Little: Some Notes on Edward Abbey. Tucson: Harbinger House, 1989. Limerick, Patricia Nelson. Something in the Ground: Legacies and Accounts in the New West. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2000. Loeffler, Jack. adventures with ED: a portrait of Abbey. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002.