| Dick Estell The Radio Reader Public Radio's Reading Program |
| (non-fiction) |
| Airs August 14 thru September 11, 2008 |
In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year’s westward migration
stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of
grueling travel, the 81 men, women, and children would be trapped for a brutal
winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by
spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most
harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what
happened---and what it tells us about human nature and about America’s
westward expansion---remained shrouded in myth.
Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa states “this sober, unflinching look at one
of the great tragedies of America’s pioneering past tells us a great deal that is
new about the Donner Party’s trials.”
stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of
grueling travel, the 81 men, women, and children would be trapped for a brutal
winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by
spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most
harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what
happened---and what it tells us about human nature and about America’s
westward expansion---remained shrouded in myth.
Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa states “this sober, unflinching look at one
of the great tragedies of America’s pioneering past tells us a great deal that is
new about the Donner Party’s trials.”
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