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By Edward Abbey. Sort of a "prequel" to THE BRAVE COWBOY, FIRE ON THE MOUNTAINS is about the cowboy as a child, and mostly about his grandfather's fight to keep his home.
Grandfather John Vogelin's land is his life -- a barren stretch of New Mexican wilderness, mercifully bypassed by civilization. Then the government moves in. And suddenly the elderly, mule-stubborn rancher is confronting the combined land-grabbing greed of the County Sheriff, the Department of the Interior, the Atomic Energy Commission and the U.S. Air Force. But a tough old man is like a mountain lion: if you back him into a corner, he'll come out fighting.
This gripping novel is the story of one man's defiance of the United States government. The hero, John Vogelin, is an old rancher whose property adjoins the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. When the U.S. Air Force tries to take the possession of the ranch in order to extend the missile range, the old man refuses to give up his property. Aided only by his twelve-year-old grandson, Vogelin shows what one determined individual can do in the face of overwhelming legal and military power.
"Vogelin stands for something we too easily forget; an American dream, the heritage of forefathers, the right of every individual to rise up and proclaim 'I exist!' -- Denver Post
"If Mr. Abbey oversimplifies the twentieth century a bit by making White Sands a locus of pure evil, he states his case with a lyricism that is highly persuasive." -- New York Times
"One of the best of the serious Westerns." -- Western Review
Softcover; 192 pages.
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