Tap cover to enlarge

The Fool's Progress

Published
Oct 1988
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Rating
Pages
528

About This Book

The environmentalist author of Desert Solitaire presents an autobiographical novel of an aging man's anarchic journey across America in search of home.
The Fool's Progress, the "fat masterpiece" as Edward Abbey labeled it, is his most important piece of writing: it reveals the complete Ed Abbey, from the green grass of his memory as a child in Appalachia to his approaching death in Tucson at age sixty two.


When his third wife abandons him in Tucson, boozing, misanthropic anarchist Henry Holyoak Lightcap shoots his refrigerator and sets off in a battered pick-up truck for his ancestral home in West Virginia. Accompanied only by his dying dog and his memories, the irascible warhorse (a stand-in for the "real" Abbey) begins a bizarre cross-country odyssey—determined to make peace with his past—and to wage one last war against the ravages of "progress."

"A profane, wildly funny, brash, overbearing, exquisite tour de force." —The Chicago Tribune

Genres & Themes

Buy This Book

Formats & Editions

Browse the different covers, formats, and publication history for this title.

Paperback

Paperback edition cover
Trade Paperback
Jun 1990 Avon ISBN 0380708566
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Trade Paperback
Aug 1998 Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0805057919
Buy

Hardcover

Hardcover edition cover
Hardcover
First Edition Oct 1988 Henry Holt ISBN 0805009213
Buy

eBook

eBook edition cover
eBook
Aug 1998 Holt Paperbacks ISBN B006MH2SK0
Buy
eBook edition cover
eBook
Aug 1998 Houghton Mifflin ISBN 146680629X
Buy

Audio

Audio edition cover
Audio CD
Jun 2018 Tantor Media ISBN 1541413105
Buy
Audio edition cover
Audio CD
Jun 2018 Tantor Media ISBN 1541463102
Buy
Audio edition cover
Audible
Jun 2018 Tantor Audio ISBN B07DHQZTR9
Buy