Edward Abbey, (born January 29, 1927, Indiana, Pennsylvania, U.S.-died March 14, 1989, near Tucson[now in Tucson], Arizona), American writer whose works, set primarily in the southwestern United States, reflect an uncompromising environmentalist philosophy.The son of a Pennsylvania farmer, Abbey earned a B.A. (1951) and an M.A. (1956) at the University of New Mexico.

He subsequently worked as a park ranger and fire lookout for the National Park Service in the southwest, developing an intimacy with the region's landscape that was to shape his writing career. Central to this experience was the perspective it afforded on the human presence in the natural environment. Abbey observed both the remnants of ancient Indian cultures and the encroachment of consumer civilization. His book Desert Solitaire (1968), considered by many to be his best, is an extended meditation on the sublime and forbidding wilderness of southeastern Utah and the human incursions into it. He husbanded his extensive knowledge of the region, admitting "I have written much about a good many places. But the best places of all I have never mentioned.".