Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party

The tragedy of the Donner party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846 eighty-seven people -- men, women, and children -- set out for California, persuaded to attempt a new overland route. After struggling across the desert, losing many oxen, and nearly dying of thirst, they reached the very summit of the Sierras, only to be trapped by blinding snow and bitter storms. Many perished; some survived by resorting to cannibalism; all were subjected to unbearable suffering. Incorporating the diaries of the survivors and other contemporary documents, George Stewart wrote the definitive history of that ill-fated band of pioneers; an astonishing account of what human beings may endure and achieve in the final press of circumstance.

• Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West
• The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party
• The American Experience: The Donner Party
• The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate
• The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny
• Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (New York Review Books Classics)
• Earth Abides: A Novel
• History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierras
• Alive
• All We Left Behind: Virginia Reed and the Donner Party