Book Description

On June 28, 2015, retired California State University, Chico librarian Jim Dwyer was found unconscious on the floor of the men’s room in a mini-mart outside Sacramento, apparently on his way home from the Bay Area opening night of the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well tour. He died that evening in a nearby hospital. A nationally recognized literary scholar, Jim had dubbed his alter ego the Rev. Junkyard Moondog, reading beat-like poetry at open mics, joining local bands on stage, marching for peace and justice, working to save endangered species, and generally raising his freak flag high. A year after Jim’s death, his friend and colleague Steve Metzger bought Jim’s tiny run-down cottage from Jim’s brother Billy, whose only condition was that Metzger not remove Jim’s giant peace sign—fashioned of yellow and white freeway-lane divider dots—from the sloping street-facing roof of the house. Metzger, adjusting to recent personal changes of his own, set about restoring the cottage. He eventually christened it the Blue Peace House. Part biography, part memoir, Rock My Soul: A Poet’s Heart, a Brokedown Palace, and a Final Fare-Thee-Well examines Jim’s complicated life, drawing on extensive interviews with Jim’s neighbors, friends and colleagues. The book also highlights turning points in Metzger’s 40-year freelance writing career, along the way offering a look at Chico history, including the filming of The Adventures of Robin Hood, Woody Guthrie’s little-known summer in Chico, the WWII Chico Army Air Field, and the beginnings of the Chico Peace and Justice Center. Facebook posts from Jim’s/Moondog’s friends after they learn of his death shed further light on the life of this eccentric scholar/artist.