Confessions of a Barbarian cover

Confessions of a Barbarian

by Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey was an anarchist, activist, philosopher, and the spiritual father of the environmental movement. He was also a passionate journal keeper, a man who filled page after page with notes, philosophical musings, character sketches, illustrations, musical notations, and drawings. His "scribbling," as he called it, began in 1948, when he served as a motorcycle MP in postwar Italy, and continued until his death in 1989, totaling twenty-one volumes. His journals are the closest thing to an Abbey autobiography we will ever have. They reveal his youthful philosophical ruminations about art, love, literature and anarchy; follow his wanderings through Europe and the Eastern States and finally his spiritual home, the American West; and chronicle his lifelong struggle to preserve the disappearing wilderness.--From publisher description.

More by Edward Abbey

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?