Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party. by George R. Stewart - 1986.

Lincoln, NE University of Nebraska Press: Bison Books, 1986. Paperback First Ed thus, later printing. Near Fine in Wraps: shows only the most minute indications of use: just a hint of wear to extremities; mildest rubbing. Binding square and secure; text clean. Very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 320pp. First Ed thus, later printing. Trade Paperback. This book is well worth reading. It follows the Donner Party from their unfortunate choice of a bad route after they crossed the continental divide in Wyoming to their final "walk" over the Sierras. It concludes with several chapters discussing their ordeal, its causes and consequences, including some postscripts about the fate of each individual afterward. First, the story does not focus on the cannibalism, which members of the party independently resorted to on several occasions. As Stewart writes, "the cannibalism, although it might almost be called a minor episode, has become in the popular mind the chief fact to be remembered about the Donner Party. For a taboo always allures with as great strength as it repels." Instead, the story places the Donner Party in the setting of this country's westward migration, identifying its challenges and the diverse solutions the pioneers developed along the way. It includes several compelling human interest stories. It's hard to forget how one member, Reed, who was earlier ostracized from the party and went ahead, returned to meet his starving wife and two children, staved and barely walking down the west side of the snow-covered Sierra Nevada. Reed then goes ahead to try to save their other two children, who were in worse condition at Donner Lake. When the wife sees bare ground for the first time in months, she observes the leader of the "official" rescue party having his men rub his feet, because he thought he might have frostbite. The irony is obvious in the wife's sardonic comment: "we had better take care of him, reverse the order of things." It's also apparent that the leader's role in the rescue was important, even though he was content to send others ahead to brave the dangers while he ran things from camp. More irony is apparent when the second rescue party, composed mostly of mountain men and trappers, get the worst of it due to a late March storm in the Sierras. The perverse side of human nature comes out when one of the rescue party, rather than carrying out the one remaining baby, makes off with its weight in booty. Stewart also leaves in the ambiguities. Was the only survivor in the cabins in spring, really evil, enough to strangle a boy in his sleep before hanging him up the next morning like a piece of meat to be devoured? It's impossible to know. Yet the telling brings out another side of human nature --- in facing some evidence of this, the rescuers, the boy's father among them, were moved by pity and, although they thought of it, didn't simply kill him then and there. This is a well-told story about human nature, and the human qualities it takes to survive under the most adverse circumstancdes. Well deserves the classic status it has achieved.