From acclaimed author and literary genius Edward Abbey comes this classic novel that inspired the motion picture Lonely Are The Brave —a stirring and unforgettable tribute to the American hero and the American West. “We are living. . . among punishments and ruins. For those that know this, Edward Abbey’s books remain an indispensable solace.”  —  Wendell Berry The Brave Cowboy is a classic of modern Western literature. It follows Jack Burns, a loner at odds with modern civilization. He rides a feisty chestnut mare across the New West—a once beautiful land now smothered beneath airstrips and superhighways. An "anarchist cowboy," he lives by a personal code of ethics that sets him on a collision course with the keepers of law and order. After a prison breakout plan goes awry, he finds himself and his horse, Whisky, pursued across the desert towards the mountains that lead to Mexico, and to freedom. With local law enforcement, the feds, and the military on their tails, the cowboy and his horse race towards their destiny. “The Thoreau of the American West.” - Larry McMurtry “Abbey is a fresh breath from the farther reaches and canyons of the diminishing frontier.” - Houston Chronicle “Abbey writes with fierce eloquence of landscape and city, of stunted souls and drunken despair. He can be funny and poignant at once” - Publishers Weekly “We are living… among punishments and ruins. For those that know this, Edward Abbey’s books remain an indispensable solace.” - Wendell Berry The classic novel that inspired the motion picture Lonely Are the Brave —a stirring and unforgettable tribute to the American hero and American West. A classic of modern Western literature, The Brave Cowboy follows Jack Burns, a loner at odds with modern civilization. He rides a feisty chestnut mare across the New West—a once beautiful land now smothered beneath airstrips and superhighways. An “anarchist cowboy,” he lives by a personal code of ethics that sets him on a collision course with the keepers of law and order. After a prison breakout plan goes awry, he finds himself and his horse, Whisky, pursued across the desert toward the mountains that lead to Mexico and to freedom. With local law enforcement, the feds, and the military on their tails, the cowboy and his horse race toward their destiny. “One of the best writers to deal with the American West.”— Washington Post “The Thoreau of the American West.”—Larry McMurtry Edward Abbey spent most of his life in the American Southwest. He was the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the celebrated Desert Solitaire , which decried the waste of America’s wilderness, and the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang , the title of which is still in use today to describe groups that purposefully sabotage projects and entities that degrade the environment. Abbey was also one of the country’s foremost defenders of the natural environment. He died in 1989.