He asked that it never be published again, and it has not been, making it very rare and the only one of his eight novels that many Edward Abbey fans have not read.

According to James M. Cahalan's biography, Edward Abbey, A Life, he could barely get through the galleys before the book was published.

This is the only one of Abbey's eight novels that was set entirely east of the Mississippi River and away from his beloved deserts of the Southwestern United States.

He does spend a good portion of The Fool's Progress in West Virginia, but it starts in Tucson and then follows a road trip to its climax.

While no one has claimed that the book is in any way an autobiographical account, it was not well received by people who had known Abbey during his senior year of high school.

In real life, both of Abbey's parents were living and his father had two perfectly good eyes.

We're given an insight into the mind of a teen-age boy, where he holds nearly everyone he meets in contempt—especially his father, Nathaniel, and his favorite teacher, Feathersmith.

But once he finally succeeds in seducing her, he begins to lose interest, especially when she starts talking about marriage.

Abbey doesn't come right out and say he's gay, but he describes his "fairy-flower" hands, talks about what a pink little fellow he is, and Jonathan calls him "Fairysmith" in his own mind.

There are many hints of the greatness Abbey would fine tune in his later works, including his love of the desert (Jonathan longs to go there); his deep passion for women and beer; and above all his sense of humor.

But the climax of the story comes when some town drunks decide they're going to make the Communist kiss the American flag.

There was a real person named Earl "Red" Ginter who was part of Abbey's early life and seems to be the inspiration for these characters.