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Donner Party

The Donner Party: Weathering the Storm
By: McLaughlin, Mark
Illustrated: Historical Photos
Pub Date: 2007
Publisher: MicMac Publishing
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 180
ISBN: 096572025X
List Price: $19.95
This unique look at the saga of the Donner Party's struggle for survival s focuses on the  extreme local weather that challenged  the snow-bound emigrants and their rescuers.
The Perilous Journey of 
the Donner Party
By: Calabro, Marion
Pub Date:

Publisher: Random House
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 
ISBN: 0395866103

List Price: $20.00

Winner of the California Library Association's annual Beatty Award  for a young adult book that best promotes awareness of California and its history, this new account of the Donner Party ordeal is told  through the eyes of 13-year-old survivor Virginia Reed.
Snow Mountain Passage
By Houston, James
Pub Date: 2001
Publisher: Random House
Binding: Hardcover/Trade
Pages: 
ISBN: 0375411038
List Price: $24.00/$14.00
This is historical fiction at its best!  Told alternately from the perspective of a grown Patty Reed (who was just a girl during the crossing) and of her father, James, this story conveys the drama of the Reed family's migration west with the Donner Party. Banished from the group, James Reed made it to Sutter's Fort before the  heavy winter of 1846 where his rescue effort had to wait out weather and political turmoil.  This is truly a magnificent work of fiction that reveals much about history and humanity during these exciting times.  
Lovina's Song: A Pioneer Girl's Journey With the Donner Party
By: Rudolph, Marian
Illustrated: Drawings by author
Pub Date: 1999
Publisher: Citron Bay Press
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 187
ISBN: 1928595014
List Price: $11.95
A wonderful mixture of historical fact and storyteller's magic, this new book for ages 8-12 tells the story of the Donner Party ordeal through the eyes of 11-year-old Lovina. Vividly told and filled with the historical detail of everyday life, this is one of very few books about the Donner party written for young readers.
Deceived: The Story of the Donner Party
By Limburg, Peter R.
Pub Date: 1998
Publisher: International Publishing Services
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 249, photos
ISBN: 1890988006
List Price: $29.95

The latest book to cover this tragic and historically relevant event. You are running a couple of weeks behind schedule on your transcontinental wagon train, but the experts tell you that you can still get across the Sierra Nevada mountain range before the pass is blocked by snow. Midway in the journey you are asked to join a group that is going to try a new cutoff that is said to save two weeks of travel time: one that has never been tried by wagons before. What would you do?
Winter of Entrapment: a New Look at the Donner Party
3rd Edition
By King, Joseph A.
Pub Date: 1998
Publisher: K&K Publications
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 257
ISBN: 0960850090
List Price: $13.95
This book tells the true story of the most famous of all wagon trains...the Donner Party. Of 89 persons in the party, 41 perished along the trail or in the infamous mountain camps. A powerful story of people who experienced almost unimaginable suffering, yet endured. It reveals the strength of character and even nobility of people faced with a physical and moral test at the extremes of human experience. This book won the Award of Merit from the California Historical Society.
The Archaeology of the Donner Party
By Hardesty, Donald L.
Pub Date: 1997
Publisher: Univ. of Nevada Press
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 156, photos
ISBN: 087417290X
List Price: $27.95

Archaeologist Donald Hardesty and his colleagues examine the history of the Donner Party from the perspectives of their several disciplines. In a provocative introductory essay, the author outlines the work of previous scholars, and summarizes still-unresolved questions that archaeology is uniquely qualified to address - most specifically the exact locations and layouts of the mountain camps and the issue of cannibalism allegedly committed by some of the survivors.
Snowbound: The Tragic Story of the Donner Party
By Lavender, David
Pub Date: 1996
Publisher: Holiday House, Inc.
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 87
Illustrated: Yes
ISBN: 0823412318
List Price: $22.95

Perfect for younger readers, this account by Lavender, twice-nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, is a good introduction to this historically significant event. Ideally suited for reports and reading alike.
Camp of Death: 
The Donner Party 
Mountain Camp 1846-47

By Thornton, J. Quinn
Pub Date: 1996
Publisher: Vistabooks
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 96
ISBN: 0896460371
List Price: $9.95

First published in 1849 by Harper Brothers in a two-volume book dealing mainly with other matters of interest to emigrants, settlers, and prospectors in or on their way out west. Thornton's record has good consistency with later published accounts of this horrific tragedy.
Unfortunate Emigrants: Narratives of the Donner Party
Edited by Johnson, Kristin
Pub Date: 1996
Publisher: Utah State Univ. Press
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 318
ISBN: 0874212081
List Price: $24.95
A selection of rare and hard-to-find early accounts of the 1846 emigrant party that was trapped in the winter snows of the Sierra Nevada, recounting their strenuous and conflict-ridden trail west; their experiences of starvation, death and cannibalism; and the herculean but disorganized efforts of Californians to rescue the survivors.
The Diary of Patrick Breen: One of the Donner Party
Edited by Teggart, Frederick J.
Pub Date: 1996
Publisher: Vistabooks
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 16
ISBN: 0896460487
List Price: $3.95
Only a few of the survivors of the Donner Party's winter camp ever wrote about their experience, and then after the fact. Thus, Breen's first-hand account is especially important to history. Of particular interest is the front cover that shows a portion of this diary in Breen's own hand.
Across the Plains in 
the Donner Party

By Reed Murphy, Virginia
Pub Date: 1995
Publisher: Vistabooks
Binding: Trade paper 
Pages: 64
Iillustrated: Yes
ISBN: 0896460630
List Price: $7.95
A personal narrative of the overland trip to California, recalled 45 years after the tragic events, when Reed was a woman of 56 and the mother of six children residing in San Jose, CA. Written at the request of Robert Underwood Johnson, editor for the national magazine Century, this account was first published in 1891 as part of a series of first-person articles which included writings by John Muir and others who made Western American history.
The Donner Party: a documentary film
Writer/Director: Burns, Ric
Pub Date: 1992
Distributor: Direct Cinema Ltd.
Format: Video
Running Time: 84 minutes
ISBN: 1559743999
List Price: $19.95

Originally aired on PBS, this documentary was called the "Best Television Program of 1992" by the National Board of Review. Narrated by David McCullough, this video features the voices of such wonderful actors as Timothy Hutton, Amy Madigan, Frances Sternhagen and Eli Wallach. This gripping treatment of the ill-fated party of pioneers, is an essential element in any historian's collection or video-library. Powerful and remarkable, this is a staff-favorite. For individual sale only, not licensed for sale to schools, libraries, other institutions or for commercial use.
At Great Price: the Story of Tamsen Donner
By Chapman, Mabel
Pub Date: 1992
Publisher: Mabel Chapman
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 152
ISBN: 0963458000
List Price: $7.95
This historical novel recounts the journey of Tamsen Donner; writer, educator, feminist, wife, and mother. It is the story of courageous personal choices made, for better or worse, out of a sense of commitment to another human being. Likewise, Mabel Chapman was an extraordinary woman of her time, who graduated from the University of Denver in 1914 and became both a teacher and a writer.
Excavation of the Donner-Reed Wagons 
By: Hawkins, Bruce and Madsen, David
Illustrated: Photos and Drawings
Pub Date: 1990
Publisher: Univ. of Utah Press 
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 170
ISBN: 0874806054 
List Price: $14.95
In 1846 the ill-fated Donner-Reed party became bogged down in the mud and playa of the Great Salt Lake Desert. In 1986 the remnants of their abandoned wagons were salvaged, and this book presents the results of that excavation.
The Pioneer (Donner) Monument: 
The Origin of a Statue
By: Foley, Doris 
Illustrated: Historical Photos 
Pub Date: 1982
Publisher: Nevada County Historical Society
Binding: Quality
Pages: 40
ISBN: 0915641100
List Price: $7.50
Erected in 1918 to honor the 19th-century pioneers, this monument was placed on the site where the Donner Party spent their ill-fated winter. This small but comprehensive publication tells the intriguing story of the struggle between the members of  the committee responsible for creating the statue. 
Tamsen Donner: a Woman's Journey
By Whitman, Ruth
Pub Date: 1977
Publisher: Alice James Books
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 75
ISBN: 0914086200
List Price: $9.95
Ruth Whitman explores, in verse, the experiences of Tamsen Donner who perished by the side of her husband George. Arranged in three sections that relate her journey west, to her eventual death, this story of the spirit of Tamsen Donner is eloquently expressed in Whitman's words.
Patty Reed's Doll: The Story of the Donner Party
By Laurgaard, Rachel K.
Pub Date: 1956
Publisher: Tomato Enterprises
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 144
ISBN: 0961735724
List Price: $9.95

Told from Patty's doll's perspective, this story is skillfully pieced together from authentic letters, journals, and reminiscences of Donner Party survivors. It is also the heartwarming tale of how a little girl's love for her precious doll can transcend all of life's dangers. Also available is a Teacher's Guide priced at $11.95, perfect for any classroom.
History of the Donner Party:
A Tragedy of the Sierra

By McGlashan, C.F.
Pub Date: 1947
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 261
ISBN: 0804703671
List Price: $21.95
Originally published in 1880, this book was modified in 1947 when editors contributed an introduction, maps, editors' notes, and a bibliography. This book is one of the standards by which all other Donner Party books are measured. A must-purchase for anyone interested in what happened on the fateful winter of 1846-47.
Ordeal by Hunger:
The Story of the 
Donner Party

By Stewart, George R.
Pub Date: 1936, Renewed 1988
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 392
ISBN: 0395611598
List Price: $14.95

 

Incorporating the diaries of the survivors and other contemporary documents, Stewart wrote one of the definitive histories of that ill-fated band of pioneers. An astonishing account of what human beings may endure and achieve in the final press of circumstance. Stewart taught for over fifty years at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also the author of Fire, a perennial seller at Bookshelf Stores.
The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate
By Donner Houghton, Eliza P.
Pub Date: 1911
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Binding: Trade paper
Pages: 375
ISBN: 0803273045
List Price: $17.95

Though only four years old at the time of the expedition, George Donner's youngest daughter, Eliza, would never forget the excitement of crossing the prairies, or the horror of that winter. Details impressed upon her young mind were later substantiated by the recollections of her older sisters and other survivors. Originally published in 1911, this is an intimate and authoritative account of the Donner disaster. Eliza also relates what happened to herself and her sister after being rescued, and what it was like to grow up in a world that turned the Donners into a grisly legend. Doing what university presses do best, Nebraska has done a great service to readers by republishing this book in 1997.

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