Sean Prentiss, author of Finding Abbey: A Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave

"The final chapters of Mr. Prentiss’s quest are suspenseful and winning, and ... “Finding Abbey” is a touching book." Wall Street Journal

"A brilliant creative treat for us: a seeker’s quest in which we learn about Abbey (the sought after) and Prentiss (the seeker). It’s a warm-hearted and elegantly written work and simply a joy to read. And the grave? Does he find it? That’s the best surprise of all." National Outdoor Book Award

"Layer by layer, even as he's outwardly searching, interviewing, hiking and camping, the significance of Abbey in Prentiss' own life is revealed through precise but emotional prose. The effect is both grounding and electrifying." Albuquerque Alibi

"Finding Abbey moves across landscapes urban and rural, lonely and intimate, lush and dry, filled with a depth of meaning and some with a hollow ache. Prentiss uses the landscapes to explore his own interior landscape." Whole Terrain

"Prentiss successfully demonstrates his ability to write an intriguing and compelling story that informs, inspires, and entertains. His vivid imagery and unique interviewing
style adds depth and passion to his search, resulting in an exceptional narrative that flows smoothly and conveys his admiration for Abbey and the American West. Finding Abbey is a journey well worth taking." Foreword

FINDING ABBEY:
A Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave

National Outdoor Book Award Winner
Utah Book Award Winner for Nonfiction
New Mexico-Arizona Book Award Winner for Biography
Vermont Book Award Finalist
Colorado Book Award Finalist for Creative Nonfiction
"Best of 2015 Nonfiction" by Entropy Magazine.

When author Edward Abbey died in 1989, four friends illegally buried him in a hidden desert grave. The final resting place of “The Thoreau of the American West” has become a part of modern American folklore and is located, according to Abbey’s undertaker Doug Peacock, where “no one would find it.”

Exactly twenty years after the death of my favorite author, I moved from the West to a Midwestern city. This urban move left me with an ache of placelessness and reminded me of an Abbey quote: “Who cares whether we found true gold or only fool’s gold. The adventure lies in the search.” With that quote echoing, I set out on a nearly two-year journey to find Abbey’s grave as a way of reclaiming my home in the West.

Finding Abbey: a Search for Edward Abbey’s Life and Grave is a travelogue that begins in Abbey’s hometown of Home, Pennsylvania. During my journey across America, I search for who Abbey was, how to unravel his complicated legacy, and what my future in the West might be.

By the closing chapters, with clues teased from research, travel, and interviews, I venture into an 800,000 acre American desert. After three days hiking beneath the white sun, I find something.

Published by University of New Mexico Press, 2015.

Reviews from Ed Abbey's Friends

"The Abbey portrayed in Sean Prentiss’s book is clear and true. Sean’s quest is a spiritual odyssey that beckons the reader to follow him. For me, the book is deeply poignant because Ed's hidden grave remains in my memory as a sacred place. Prentiss reveals the power of Ed Abbey's lasting call to action, not just as a Monkeywrencher, but also as an ethicist who lives by Ed's own motto, ‘Follow the truth no matter where it leads.’”--Jack Loeffler, author of Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey

“Sean Prentiss’s quest to find Abbey is a literary journey, full of adventure and self-examination, worthy of old Ed himself. Curiously, Finding Abbey is also one of the best biographies about Edward Abbey ever written.”--Doug Peacock, real-life model for Edward Abbey’s George Washington Hayduke in The Monkey Wrench Gang and author most recently of In the Shadow of the Sabertooth

“An intriguing overview of the late Southwestern literary cult hero Edward Abbey’s life and work, interspersed with an intriguingly unfolding chronicle of Prentiss’s own search for direction, meaning and art in life. And best of all—what Abbey would like best—this book has soul. The somewhat sensational title, by the way, is merely metaphorical. Or is it?"--David Petersen, editor, Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey