Finished two weeks before his death, and published posthumously,A Voice Crying in the Wilderness is a collection of aphorism and common sense wisdom filled with sarcastic, witty, and inspirational thoughts on the things Edward Abbey loved most, especially nature and freedom.
Abbey chose each passage himself from his own journals as well as from his previous writings. In his own words, some of the notes"e,may be unconscious plagiarisms from the great and dead (never steal from the living and mediocre)."e,

In Abbeys own style that is sometimes curmudgeonly, sometimes sarcastic, and often witty, he talks about nearly everything including politics, writing, sex, and sports. But as an uncompromising environmentalist, Abbey shines when talking about nature and the environment.

Abbeys last wish was to be buried in an unmarked grave somewhere out in the vast desert he loved so much.A Voice Crying in the Wilderness is an enduring signal about that desert from one of the singular American thinkers of our times.