When Edward Abbey died in 1989 at the age of sixty-two, the American West lost one of its most eloquent and passionate advocates. Through his novels, essays, letters and speeches, Edward Abbey consistently voiced the belief that the West was in danger of being developed to death, and that the only solution lay in the preservation of wilderness. Abbey authored twenty-one books in his lifetime, including Desert Solitaire, The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Brave Cowboy, and The Fool's Progress. His comic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang helped inspire a whole generation of environmental activism.

David Petersen has been a Marine Corps helicopter pilot, a college writing instructor, magazine editor and author of a dozen nonfiction books. Starting in 1980, David and his (late) wife Carolyn made their home in the rural San Juan Mountains near Durango, where they hand-built the cabin David still lives in today. An internationally acclaimed hunting ethicist and conservationist, David is the recipient of numerous awards.