NY, St. Martin's, (1990). A Voice Crying in the Wilderness was ostensibly the first trade edition of the posthumously published 1989 Rydal Press limited edition Vox Clamantis in Deserto, but retitled and re-edited and with slightly different content, and with illustrations by Andrew Rush, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness is a separate Abbey "A" item. The archive includes:

• the first draft contract between St. Martin's Press and Rydal Press for this edition, with emendations.
• 81 page photocopied typescript, heavily copyedited.
• a clean set of galley sheets, approximately 66 pages.
• "master" galleys, heavily copyedited.
• "master" page proofs dated January 12, 1990, heavily copyedited.
• a second pass of the page proofs, undated, correcting errors caught in the first set, but still imperfect.
• a "master" set of revised proofs, dated January 26, 1990, also copyedited.
• eight additional "master" proof sheets correcting the errors remaining in the third set of page proofs.
• heavily copyedited copy of the page featuring "Other Works By Edward Abbey."
• blue proof of the title page.
• composition specification sheet.
• the mock up of the endpapers, featuring Andrew Rush art work.
• a letter from St. Martin's to Clark Kimball of The Rydal Press, enclosing "some production materials" from the book they are "quite pleased to be printing. The materials include a mockup of the title page and two separate mockups of a single text page, each featuring a "blind men and the elephant" illustration by Rush, one of which is inscribed by Rush: "AR for CK."
• an Andrew Rush biographical flyer, and
• an autograph letter signed by Rush to Clark Kimball, in part transmitting a drawing that Kimball liked (not included here, but perhaps an original of the "blind men" drawing mentioned above). The letter is in a self-made Rush notecard, and the drawing tipped to the front cover is present but detached.

Some pages stapled or clipped; post-its throughout. Varying page sizes, from notecard to legal. Minor edge wear. A near fine archive all neatly assembled in a custom clamshell case, and showing the evolution of the book: the first draft contract gives the title as The West According to Abbey: Vox Clamantis in Deserto, which was never used. A post-it on a St. Martin's spec sheet seems to suggest that "An Isolated Voice" was under consideration as a title. Abbey finished the book only two weeks before he died, just 62 years old. Rydal published a limited edition, originally intended to be a signed limited edition; this first trade edition varies from the Rydal edition by virtue of the illustrations and also, according to the bibliographer, "deletions and additions," thus meriting its being identified as a separate "A" item from the Rydal edition. A unique archive of this compendium of writings by one of the most outspoken, influential and powerful advocates for wilderness in the American West. [#030669] SOLD