Edward Abbey wrote instructions to be buried without a coffin or permit, and friends buried him in the Arizona desert two days after he died

Edward Abbey died at home near Tucson on 14 March 1989, aged 62, after four days of esophageal bleeding. He left a wife, Clarke Cartwright, five children and a father. Excerpts of his written wishes appeared in Outside in June 1989. He asked that his body be carried in a pickup truck, buried quickly without undertakers, embalming or a coffin, wrapped in an old sleeping bag, and that state burial laws be ignored. He wanted the body to feed a cactus, cliff rose, sagebrush or tree. He asked for gunfire and a little music at the grave, then a wake with bagpipes. Friends including Doug Peacock and Jack Loeffler carried out the burial in the desert. Accounts of that trip say it broke the law because the body had not been officially certified and the group trespassed. About 200 people attended a wake at Saguaro National Monument in late March 1989. The grave is believed to be in the Cabeza Prieta region of southern Arizona; that is probable, not confirmed. One account describes a rock reading his name, 1927 to 1989, and "NO COMMENT"^†. In 2026 no public record names the site.