So Wild a Dream: A Novel of Frontier America

It's 1822, eighteen-year-old Eastern farm boy, Sam Morgan, lights out west for St. Louis. He joins up with a fur brigade going up the Missouri River. Young men went West for various reasons: escape the law, a broken heart, poverty, strike it rich, or adventure. Being strong and brave, a quick study and handy with his rifle named "Celt", Sam learns the beaver trade, finds friendship and love and, after exciting close calls, learns how to survive in a hostile, untamed wilderness. He's no longer a "greenhorn" or tenderfoot. Why beaver fur? Because, before silk, beaver "felt" hats were the fashion.
Towards the end of the novel, Sam returns East to visit his mother and square things with his brother. He won't stay--too much has happened. As his mother says, "It's in you to wander." The freedom and excitement of the West is too irresistible. He is no longer a boy but of that rare breed called "mountain men".
Many consider the author's "Rendezvous" series, of which So Wild A Dream (2003) is the first of six, as the best fictional series to date of the "mountain Man" subgenre. It won the "SPUR Award" for best novel of the West. If your patrons or students crave further adventurous tales of this untamed breed, I would recommend Terry C. Johnston's "Titus Bass" series (1st-Dance On The Wind), and Richard S. Wheeler's "Barnaby Skye" series (1st-Sun River).
Recommended by Robert L. Hicks, Librarian.