The Donner Party

19 years ago

I would really like to read an account of the history of the Donner tragedy and wonder what you could recommend.

I have been reading and enjoying all the postings but haven't had time to join in

I was the Joan of a Derby and Joan quietly retired couple - over the past few months we have acquired one daughter and her son (10)- another grandson (17) - these are permanent 'fixtures' - another daughter and her daughter - while one prepares to live abroad and the other to go to Uni (this until end Sept).

Oh - and 2 cats to join our one dog.

Happy days!

Still finding time to read though - just started Eleni (N Gage) again after many years - and starting off group in Sept. with The Sound and the Fury.

Love to all

Jan

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Comments (11)

carolyn_ky
19 years ago
Jan, it certainly sounds like things are picking up at your house!

Norah Lofts wrote a fiction book about the Donner party called Winter Harvest. Her books, of course, are out of print; but you can probably find it on abe.com or another such site.

My husband and I once did an Amtrak (train) trip across the country from Chicago to California and up through the Northwest. The powers that be on the train made the announcement when we went through the Donner Pass. It was quite beautiful in mid-summer with plenty of food in the dining car.
veer
19 years ago
Jan, good to see you back.

A couple of books I picked up at a 'bring and buy' sale mention the Donner party. I think they had been part of an 'Open University/Women's Studies' course.
With Great Hope; Women of the California Gold Rush by JoAnn Chartier which has a chapter on Mary Graves (one of the Donner group) and Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel.
Some amazing photos, these tough women must have kept their Sunday Best in a tin trunk . . . just in case.
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aftermidnight, I haven't seen that show on the Weather Channel and will have to look for that. I like their 'Weird Weather' series. Two nights ago they aired a lengthy documentary on the Donner Party based on the book 'Desperate Passage', I thought the Salt Flats in Utah was fascinating. I like just about any good show concerning tidbits, diaries and facts about daily life during early migrations and settlements west of Independence Missouri because to tell the stories its always essential to describe the American landscape back then. There was a documentary on the History channel some time back of America before Europeans, I think it was called 'America Before Columbus' that had a lot of interesting details about native plant life and what was brought in by Europeans. 'The Worst Hard Time' was both a good book and documentary, ecological disasters due to plowing up the midwest are always interesting along with how life was back then. I read books by authors like Willa Cather & David Laskin mostly to read about small towns, early life in the cities, the era, the birth of modern sciences, landscape and how the people lived. Frankly, gardening shows are very boring to me so I'm not in the looking mode and am being off-topic now that I consider it. Camps started it with the TV commentary (will that work as an excuse?) Personally I'd rather look at books or watch documentaries. I can get a lot of mileage out of a single book.
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ginny12
19 years ago
A non-fiction account of the Donner Party disaster that is very well done is "Ordeal by Hunger" by George Stewart. I first read it 30 years ago, after living in California.

I just checked Amazon and it is still in print. I was amaxed to see that it was written in the 1930s. It's well thought of and appears in all bibliographies that touch on the matter, but it reads like a suspense novel. Trust me, you won't be able to put it down.
J C
19 years ago
It's not a book, but Ric Burns produced an excellent documentary for The American Experience public tv show in 1992 entitled, oddly enough, The Donner Party. The actual diaries and memories of the people involved are woven into the story with great effect. Really an amazing story - if it were fiction, no one would believe it! I believe it is readily available in the U.S., but I'm not sure about other places.

I've been through the Donner Pass, which today has a highway going through it. I don't think anyone can travel by there without thinking of the nightmare that occurred there, and the more you learn about it, the more fascinating it becomes.
twobigdogs
19 years ago
Decendents of the Donner family live near here. And after the trajedy, they changed the spelling of their name to disassociate themselves with the horror and the rumors.

Just a bit of trivia.
PAM
jankin
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks so much for all the suggestions - I'll be searching amazon & abe and I will look for that documentary.
.

I find reading about wilderness and survival fascinating - dont mind if it is fictionalised -but prefer the factual accounts. My first encounter was with the 'Settlers in Canada' and I can still remember the fear of the wolf at the door And I love The Little House on the Prairie Series.

Any further suggestions on similar themes?

I've read the arctic and antarctic explorers
twobigdogs
18 years ago
I have a suggestion, Jan. Not sure if it is what you would deem a "survival" book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's called: Noah John Rondeau, Adirondack Hermit by Maitland DeSorno.

Noah John was a man who lived the life of a hermit in the Adirondack Mountains and was born in 1883. He was the self-proclaimed Mayor of Cold River City, population: 1. Noah John kept a journal of how he prepared for the winter and survived in his hermitage. Amazon carries it, as does Target.

PAM

Here is a link that might be useful: Noah John Rondeau - Adirondack Hermit
jankin
Original Author
18 years ago
Many thanks also - Rondeau sounds just right - it is unfortunately only available (at a reasonable cost) in US
but I will look around the Net.
veer
18 years ago
Jan, an excellent book on the very hard life experienced in the Ontario of the early 1800's is Sisters in the Wilderness by Charlotte Gray.
About the lives of two 'genteel' but impoverished English women who married rather useless British Army officers and went out to Canada hoping to make a new life.
Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill suffered severe privations due to lack of funds, freezing winters and huge families but both went on in their old age to become well-known writers/botanists.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sisters in the Wilderness
phoebecaulfield
18 years ago
As I recall, there's a good account of the Donner Party in The Year of Decision--1846 by Bernard De Voto.
jankin
Original Author
18 years ago
Great suggestions many thanks

The Donner Party

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