A Season for the Wilderness

Desert Solitaire was published early in 1968, while I was still dodging bullets in the Central Highlands. I left Vietnam that spring; my last day in the field was March 16, 1968. I flew out in a helicopter from the inland mountains east to the coast and up toward Da Nang. North of Quang Ngãi City, we got shot at—not a big deal, as choppers got shot at all the time, but I looked down and recognized the place. I’d been down there: The place was known as My Lai.

I didn’t meet Ed Abbey until the winter of 1968. It was in Tucson. Bill Eastlake, a mutual friend, called me and told me to come on over. I hopped on my motorcycle and drove up and down the desert roads at the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains until I located Eastlake’s house, which back then was beyond the edge of the giant cow-plop that has become Tucson. Some people were there, possibly writer-types,