(n.p.), [University of Arizona], 1987. The galley sheets of Abbey's preface to the 20th anniversary edition of his classic of environmental literature, published by the University of Arizona in 1988. Five long pages, 8-1/2" x 14", folded once, reproducing editorial (and authorial?) changes in the text and with Abbey's annotations to the first page: his printed name; a specification that this is the preface "to the 5th Edition (U of A Press) of Desert Solitaire)" and the parenthetical notation of "pub. date April or May, 1988." The galleys are dated 1987 and marked "1st Proof." The preface to the 20th anniversary edition was an opportunity for Abbey to look back on the days when he wrote the notes from which the book derived -- more than a decade before it was first published in 1968 -- and to remark on both the way it had taken on a life of its own over the years and also the way that the destruction of the wilderness that he wrote about was ongoing and increasing. Abbey decries such despoliation of the natural world; declares himself not to be a "nature writer" as he is frequently called but rather a "nature lover"; thanks his readers for their support while recounting pointedly the lack of attention he has gotten from the Eastern critical establishment; and ends with a benediction both for the reader and for the natural world that reads as almost a coda to a life spent contending with those who would destroy the natural beauty of the world, and limit our ability to confront it and engage it with awe and wonder. Abbey died in early 1989 at the age of 62, so this is likely one of the last essays he wrote. An early, rare galley proof showing corrections and changes to a work in progress by one of the foremost advocates for wilderness. [#029570] SOLD