Below are listed only a few of the
many books and articles about the Donner Party,
plus a few with interesting information about related
topics.
The OCTA Bookstore carries
a large selection of trail-related items,
including histories, overland diaries, maps, and
guidebooks, including many of the following titles.
Anonymous
 "Big Bill and the
Donner Ordeal." McCutchen, November 1978,
6-9.
"A Horror Revived." Santa
Cruz Daily Sentinel, August 31, 1888, 3. Reprinted in Crossroads 7:4 (Fall 1996).
"Nicholas Clark: One of the
Rescuers of the Donner Party." Truckee
Republican, October 24, 1885. Reprinted in Crossroads 7:1.
"A Survivor of the Downer
Horror of 1846-7." Russian
River Flag, December 30, 1875. Reprinted in Crossroads 7:2&3.
"Biographical
Obituary: Samuel C. Young—A Pioneer of 1846—An
Enterprising Citizen." San Jose Pioneer,
November 9, 1878, 2.
Alphabetically by Author
Altrocchi,
Julia Cooley. The Old California Trail. Caldwell,
ID: Caxton, 1945.
Angle, Paul
M. "Here I have lived": A History of
Lincoln's Springfield, 1821-1865. New ed. Chicago:
Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, 1971.
Askenazy,
Hans. Cannibalism: From Sacrifice to Survival. New
York: Prometheus, 1994.
Bagley, Will. "'Every thing
is Favorable! And God Is on Our Side': Samuel Brannan and
the Conquest of California." Journal of Mormon
History 23:2 (1997): 185-209.
Bagley, Will. "Lansford
Warren Hastings: Scoundrel or Visionary?" Overland
Journal 12:1 (1994): 12-26.
Baldwin, Louise. A Teacher's
Guide to Patty Reed's Doll: the Story of the Donner Party.
Davis, CA: Tomato Enterprises, 1996.
Betts, Doris. The Sharp Teeth
of Love. New York: Knopf, 1997. (Fiction)
Boggs, Lilburn W. "Emigrants
to California." Oregon Spectator, July 8,
1847. Reprinted in "Unfortunate Emigrants".
Boggs, William M. "The Donner
Party." San Francisco Examiner, August 25, 1884; reprinted
in Crossroads 6:1 (1995): 5-9.
Burnett, Peter H. Recollections
and Opinions of an Old Pioneer. New York: D.
Appleton, 1880.
Breen,
Patrick. Diary. November 20,
1846 - March 30, 1847. Reprinted in Overland in 1846.
Bryant, Edwin. What I Saw in California. Lincoln: University of Nebraska,
1985. Facsimile reprint of the 1848 original.
Burns, Ric.
The Donner Party. Santa Monica, CA:
Direct Cinema Ltd., 1992. (VHS).
Carter, Lyndia. "Charles
Kelly and the Salt Desert Trail." Crossroads 7:2&3 (Spring/Summer
1996)
Cooper, Katherine Wakeman.
"Patty Reed." Overland Monthly 69 (June
1917), 517-520. Excerpted in Crossroads 8:1 (Winter 1997).
Curran, Harold. Fearful
Crossing: The Central Overland Trail Through Nevada.
Las Vegas: Nevada Publications, 1987.
DeLafosse,
Peter H., ed. Trailing the Pioneers:
A Guide to Utah’s Emigrant
Trails, 1829-1869. Utah State University Press, 1994.
DeVoto, Bernard. Year
of Decision, 1846. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943.
Diamond, Jared. "Living Through the
Donner Party." Discover 13:3 (March 1992), 100-107.
Eberstadt,
Edward, ed. A Transcript of the Fort Sutter
Papers, Together with the Historical Commentaries
Accompanying Them. 39 vols. in 1. New York: De Vinne
Press, 1921. Vols. 26-27.
Egan, Ferol. "The Donner
Party Pooper." Westways 70:10 (1978): 46-49,
65.
Ellsworth, Spencer. "The
Graves Tragedy." In Records of Olden Times; or,
Fifty Years on the Prairies, 588-632. Lacon, IL: Home
Journal Steam Printing Establishment, 1880. Excerpted in Crossroads 7:2&3 (Spring/Summer
1996).
Enright, John Shea. "The
Breens of San Juan Bautista: With a Calendar of Family
Papers." California Historical Society Quarterly,
33:4 (December 1954): 349-359.
Farnham,
Eliza W. "Narrative
of the Emigration of the Donner Party to California, in
1846." In California, In-doors and Out. New York: Dix, Edwards, 1856, p.
380-453. Reprinted in "Unfortunate
Emigrants".
Franzwa,
Gregory M. Maps of the California Trail. Foreword
by Will Bagley. Tucson, AZ: Patrice Press, 1999.
Franzwa,
Gregory M. The Oregon Trail Revisited. Silver
anniversary ed. Tucson, AZ: Patrice Press, 1997.
Graves, Mary Ann. Letter
to Levi Fosdick, May 22, 1847. Illinois Gazette
1847, 2-3. Reprinted in "Unfortunate
Emigrants".
Graves, William C. "Crossing
the Plains in '46." Russian River Flag, April
26, May 3, 10, 17, 1877. Reprinted
in "Unfortunate
Emigrants".
Graydon,
Charles K. Trail of the First Wagons Over the Sierra
Nevada. Gerald, MO: Patrice Press, 1986.
Grayson, Donald K. "Donner
Party Deaths: A Demographic Assessment." Journal
of Anthropological Research 46:3 (1990): 223-242.
Hall,
Carroll D., ed. Donner Miscellany: 41 Diaries and
Documents. San Francisco: Book Club of California,
1947.
Hardesty,
Donald L. The Archaeology of the Donner Party. Reno:
University of Nevada Press, 1997.
Hardesty, Donald L.
"Donner Party Archaeology." Overland Journal
10: 3 (1992): 19-26.
Harlan, Jacob Wright. California, '46 to '88. San Francisco: Bancroft, 1888. Excerpted in "Unfortunate Emigrants".
Hastings, Lansford W. The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and
California . Bedford, MA: Applewood
Books, 1994. Reprint of the 1845
edition.
Hawkins,
Bruce R., and David M. Madsen. Excavation of the
Donner-Reed Wagons: Historic Archaeology along the
Hastings Cutoff. Salt Lake City: University of Utah
Press, 1999. Paperback reprint, originally published in
1990.
Hill,
William E. The California Trail, Yesterday and Today.
2nd ed. Boise, ID: Tamarack Books, 1993.
Houghton,
Eliza Donner. The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its
Tragic Fate. Introduction
by Kristin Johnson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1997. Reprint of 1911 original.
Johnson, Kristin. "1879:
Virginia Reed Tells It Like It Was." Donner Party Bulletin 2.
Johnson, Kristin. "Baptiste
Who?" Crossroads 7: 4
(Fall 1996): 6.
Johnson, Kristin. "Bizarre
Story About the Donner Party." Donner Party Bulletin
1.
Johnson, Kristin. "The
Blaisdell Connection." Donner Party Bulletin 4.
Johnson, Kristin. "'Boonhelm
the Cannibal' Mystery Solved." Crossroads 9:1
(1998): 8.
Johnson, Kristin. "Donner
Party Books On the Way." Donner Party Bulletin
8.
Johnson, Kristin. "Eleanor
Graves McDonnell." Crossroads 7, no.
2&3 (Spring/Summer 1996): 8-9.
Johnson, Kristin. "Keseberg
and the Buffalo Robe." Crossroads 7, no.
2&3 (Spring/Summer 1996): 17-18.
Johnson, Kristin. "Looking
for Luke in All the Wrong Places." Crossroads 7,
no 2&3 (Spring/Summer 1996): 15.
Johnson, Kristin. "Luke
Halloran." Crossroads
7:2&3 (Spring/Summer 1996): 12-15.
Johnson, Kristin. "The
Miller-Reed Diary." Donner Party Bulletin
5.
Johnson, Kristin. "The Murphy
Cabin Vials." Donner Party Bulletin 7.
Johnson, Kristin. "'New'
Donner Party Relics." Donner Party Bulletin
7.
Johnson, Kristin. "The
Pioneer Palace Car: Adventures in Western
Mythmaking." Crossroads 4:3 (Summer 1994),
5-8.
Johnson, Kristin. "Tamsen's
Other Children." Donner Party Bulletin
1.
Johnson, Kristin. "What Is It
About the Donner Party?" American Survival Guide
20:9 (September 1998), 58-59, 66-67.
Johnson, Kristin. "When did
the Graves Family Join the Donner Party?" Crossroads 7:2&3 (Spring/Summer 1996), 10-11.
Johnson, Kristin. "William B.
Ide Describes Palace Car in 1845." Crossroads
6:4 (Fall 1995), 7-8.
Johnson, Kristin, comp. "Some
Keseberg Clippings." Donner Party Bulletin 6.
Johnson,
Kristin, ed. "Unfortunate
Emigrants": Narratives of the Donner Party. Logan: Utah State University Press,
1996.
Kelly,
Charles. Salt Desert Trails. Edited by Peter H.
DeLafosse. Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1996. Hastings
Cutoff Sesquicentennial ed.; originally published in
1930.
Kelly,
Charles, and Dale L. Morgan. Old Greenwood: The Story
of Caleb Greenwood, Trapper, Pathfinder, and Early
Pioneer. Georgetown, CA: Talisman, 1965.
Keys, Ancel, Josef Brozek, Austin Henschel, and Henry Longstreet Taylor.
The Biology of Human Starvation. 2 vols. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press, 1950.
King, Joseph A. "Luis and
Salvador: Unsung Heroes of the Donner Party." The
Californians 13:2 (1996), 20-21.
King,
Joseph A. Winter of Entrapment: A New Look at the
Donner Party. Lafayette, CA: K&K Publications,
1998. 3rd ed.
Korns, J.
Roderic, and Dale L. Morgan, eds. West from Fort
Bridger: The Pioneering of Immigrant Trails Across Utah,
1846-1850. Revised and updated by Will Bagley and
Harold Schindler. Logan: Utah State University Press,
1994.
Lewis, Donovan. Pioneers of
California: True Stories of Early Settlers in the Golden
State. San Francisco: Scottwall Associates, 1993.
Lienhard, Heinrich. From St.
Louis to Sutter's Fort. Translated by Erwin G. Gudde
and Elisabeth K. Gudde. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1961.
Limburg,
Peter. Deceived: The Story of the Donner Party.
Pacifica, CA: IPS Books, 1998.
McCurdy, Stephen A.
"Epidemiology of Disaster: The Donner Party
(1846-1847)." Western Journal of Medicine
160:4 (1994): 338-342.
McDonnell, Eleanor Graves.
"Eleanor Graves McDonnell Letter, 1850."Crossroads 7:2&3 (Spring/Summer
1996), p. 9
McGlashan, C. F. From the Desk
of Truckee's C. F. McGlashan. Edited by M. Nona
McGlashan. 2nd ed. Truckee, CA: Sierra State Parks
Foundation, [1996].
McGlashan, C. F. History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of
the Sierra. 2nd ed. San Francisco: A.L.
Bancroft, 1880.
McGlashan, M.
Nona. Give me a Mountain Meadow: The Life of Charles Fayette
McGlashan. Fresno: Pioneer Press, 1977.
McKellar, George A. "History
of the McKellar Ranches at Pilot Peak." Crossroads
6:4 (Fall 1994): 4-5.
McKenna, K.C. Survival: A Novel
of the Donner Party. New York: Jove Books, 1994.
(Fiction)
Merritt, Robert E. "The
Rescuers, John and Daniel Rhoads." Dogtown
Territorial Quarterly, Summer 1996, 8-9, 44-47.
Merryman,
J. H. "Narrative of the Sufferings of a Company of
Emigrants in the Mountains of California, in the Winter
of '46 and '7." Illinois
Journal, December 1847. Reprinted in Overland in
1846.
Miller,
Hiram O., and James F. Reed. Miller-Reed Diary. Published
in Donner Miscellany, West from Fort Bridger,
Overland in 1846.
Mobley, Richard Scott. "A
Magic Mirror": Representations of the Donner Party,
1846-1997. Ph.D. dissertation, University of
California-Santa Cruz, 1997.
Morgan, Dale L., ed. Overland in 1846:
Diaries and Letters of the California-Oregon Trail.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. 2 vols.
Reprint; originally published by Talisman Press in 1963. An
invaluable collection of source documents for the emigration of 1846 and
the Donner Party .
Mullen,
Frank. The Donner Party Chronicles: A
Day-by-Day Account of a Doomed Wagon Train, 1846-1847.
Introduction by Will Bagley. Reno: Nevada Humanities
Committee, 1997. Reviewed in Donner Party Bulletin
3.
Murphy, Virginia E. B. Reed, and
James F. Reed. Across the
Plains in the Donner Party, with letters by James F. Reed.
Edited by Karen Zeinert. North Haven, CT: Linnet Books,
1996
Murphy,
Virginia Reed. Across the Plains in the Donner Party (1891). Reprinted in "Unfortunate
Emigrants".
Neelands, Barbara. "Reason P.
Tucker: The Quiet Pioneer." Napa
County Historical Society Gleanings 4:2 (1989): 21.
Rabbeson,
Antonio B. "An Overland Emigrant of 1846:
Antonio B. Rabbeson's Account." Crossroads 7:2&3 (Spring/Summer
1996).
Reed, James
F. Letter, May 20, 1846. Crossroads 8:1 (Winter 1997).
Reed, James
F. "The Starved, Snowbound Emigrants of 1846."
Pacific Rural Press,
March 25 & April 1, 1871.
Reprinted in "Unfortunate Emigrants".
Schmidt, Jo Ann Brant. "Who
Was Captain George Donner?" Donner Party Bulletin 3.
Sinclair, John. "Sufferings
of the California Emigrants." Ohio Observer (Hudson, Ohio), October 16, 1847. Reprinted in Crossroads 8:4 (Fall 1997).
Steed, Jack. The Donner Party
Rescue Site: Johnson's Ranch on Bear River. Rev. and
expanded ed. Sacramento: Graphic, 1993.
Stewart, George R. The
California Trail: An Epic With Many Heroes. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1962.
Stewart, George R. Donner Pass
and Those Who Crossed It... Menlo Park: Lane, 1964.
Stewart, George R. Ordeal by
Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party. 2nd ed.
Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
Tannahill,
Reay. Flesh and Blood: A History of the Cannibal
Complex. New York: Stein and Day, 1975.
Tea, Roy D., ed. The Hastings
Cutoff: Grantsville to Donner Springs, May 1996. Salt
Lake City, UT: [Utah Crossroads Chapter,
Oregon-California Trails Association], 1996.
Tea, Roy D., ed. Hastings
Longtripp: A Hastings Cutoff Trail Guide from Donner
Spring to the Humboldt River. Salt Lake City, UT:
Utah Crossroads, Oregon-California Trails Association,
1996.
Thornton, Jessy Quinn. Oregon
and California in 1848. 2 vols. New York: Harper
& Bros., 1849. Excerpted in "Unfortunate
Emigrants".
Unruh, John
D., Jr. The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and
the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Van Doren, William H. "That
Old Grave." Blue Rapids
Times
(Blue Rapids, KS), August 15,1895. Reprinted in Crossroads 8:1
(1997):
6.
West, Naida. "The Tragic Life
of Elitha Donner." Sierra Heritage 13:3
(November/December 1993), 30-33.
Wexler,
Alan. Atlas of Westward Expansion. New York:
Facts On File, 1995.
Williams, Jacqueline. Wagon
Wheel Kitchens. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas
Press, 1993.
Wright, Rachel Elizabeth Cyrus. The
Early Upper Napa Valley. Calistoga:
Sharpsteen Museum, 1991.
Children's/
Young Adult Books
Anderson,
Edna Mae. Tamsen: The Story of the Donner Party.
Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1973.
(Fiction.)
Boeve,
Eunice. Trapped!: The True Story of a Pioneer Girl.
Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks Press, 1995. (Fiction.)
Calabro, Marian.
The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party. New York:
Clarion Books, 1999. (History.)
Chapman, Mabel H. At Great
Price: The Story of Tamsen Donner.
North Hills, CA: Mabel Chapman, 1992. (Fiction)
Laurgaard, Rachel K. Patty
Reed's Doll: The Story of the Donner Party.
Fairfield, Calif: Tomato Enterprises, 1989. (Fiction.)
Lavender, David S. Snowbound:
The Tragic Story of the Donner Party. New York:
Holiday House, 1996. (History.)
Rudolph,
Marian. Lovina’s Song. Marin Co. Calif.:
Citrus Bay Press, 1999. (Fiction.)
Sutton,
Margaret. Palace Wagon Family: A
True Story of the Donner Party. New York: Knopf,
1957. (Fiction.)
Werner, Emmy E. "The Children
of the Donner Party." In Pioneer Children on the
Journey West, 24-53. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995.
(History)
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