Walden and Desert SolitaireAs “Civil Disobedience” and The Monkey Wrench Gang are in terms of themes and activism, Thoreau's influence on Abbey is more pronounced in comparison to Thoreau's greatest work, Walden, and Abbey's personal desert meditation, Desert Solitaire. The publication of Desert Solitaire first drew critical attention to Abbey's connection with Thoreau, and led to Abbey being labeled "a Thoreau road company" by Clifton Fadiman (Cahalan 163). From that point in his career, Abbey was often equated with Thoreau, and although it took many years, Abbey "encouraged the use of the 'Thoreau of the American West' as a blurb on the hardcover of Beyond the Wall" (Cahalan 163). Abbey would quickly change her mind about this Thoreau comparison, but she followed him, for good reason, throughout her career. Beyond the texts' similarities in construction and subject matter, they are grouped together as "Solitude and Country Life" in Thomas Lyon's "Taxonomy of Natural Writing" (278), and both reveal the authors' characters and great truths about modern society and natural life. Walden and Desert Solitaire walk the path to natural truths together right from the start in terms of organization and setting. Both works are divided into several vignettes that express the personal experiences of the writers. Each of these chapters contains the themes of man's communion with the natural world, modernization and the liberating effect that can result from isolation. Both texts also have a similar introduction that sets up the panels and gives the reader an idea of ​​the author's state of mind and why he is writing. Thoreau begins with: “When I have written the following pages, or… half the paper… ench Gang. New York: Rosetta Books, 2003. Print.---. Preface. Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside. New York: Holt Publishing, 1984. Print.---. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Print.Bishop, James. Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist: The Life and Legacy of Edward Abbey. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. PrintCahalan, James M. Edward Abbey: A Life. Tucson: U of A Press, 2001. PrintLyon, Thomas J. “A Taxonomy of Natural Writing.” The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Eds. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm. Athens: U of G Press, 1996. 276-281. Print.cheese, Don. “Desert Solitaire: Counter-Friction to the Machine in the Garden.” Glotfelty and Fromm 303-322. Print.Thoreau, Henry David. “Civil disobedience”. Bedford: Applewood Books, 2000. Print.---. Walden. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Print.