Honyocker Dreams

Honyocker Dreams: Montana Memories dramatizes “recovery” both as healing and as reconstruction of a past that haunts and enriches the present. David Mogen’s narrative begins with his dying father’s reminiscences as he surveys the Montana landscape, and then weaves through his own memories about the postfrontier world of Indian reservations and farming towns that endure on the Montana “Hi-Line,” that flat expanse of Big Sky country that lies hard against the Canadian border east of the Rockies. Mogen’s journey of recovery includes heartfelt, often humorous stories defining his family’s “honyocker” history, shaped by the dreams and disappointments of working-class farmers, cowboys, and miners. The narrative chronicles boom-and-bust tales about growing up in small-town Montana in the 1950s, about the culture shock associated with leaving the Hi-Line in the 1960s, about a healing gift from Blackfeet relatives, and about traveling to Ireland to reflect on family ties to Marcus Daly, Butte, Montana’s “Copper King.”  Mogen suggests how the eras of his own childhood and the frontier world of his ancestors have shaped him and our American heritage as we move further into the twenty-first century.  

"Honyocker Dreams is full of humor, sharp details, clear prose, and reflections on what it means to be a Westerner, past and present."—Jenny Shank, New West, "David Mogen, CSU English professor, has penned a realistic memoir that will trigger memories in all, even if you don't know what in the world a honyocker is."—Nancy Hansford, Coloradoan, "Mogen deftly revisits the geographies of his past, resulting in an eloquent testimony to the grit and aspirations of his parents and his own talent as a lyrical chronicler."—O. Alan Weltzien, Western American Literature, "I grew up in South Texas, about as far south as one can get from the Hi-Line and still be in the United States. But the book continually brought back memories I didn't even know I had about what it was like to be a kid growing up in a small town, where one learns to rely on one's own resources. In Mr. Mogen's fine book, we learn as much about ourselves as we do about him."—David Crisp, Billings Outpost, "David Mogen offers critical acumen in thrilling anecdotes."—Nick Bascom, Great Plains Quarterly

David Mogen is professor emeritus of English at Colorado State University. He is the coeditor of several books, including Frontier Gothic: Terror and Wonder at the Frontier in American Literature, and is the author of Ray Bradbury and Wilderness Visions: The Western Theme in Science Fiction Literature.