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

Title: Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party
Author: George R. Stewart
Publisher: Mariner Books
Publication Date: January 30, 1992 (first published, 1936)
Edition: Paperback (416 pages)
Category: non-fiction

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

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In 1846, 87 men, women and children set out for California, and began a journey filled with almost unimaginable hardship. This has been chronicled in books and movies. And George R. Stewart does a masterful job weaving together the various accounts to produce a readable tale.

From previous reading and watching the movie Donner Pass, I had no true idea as to the extremity of conditions and starvation the members of the Donner party endured. I'm glad I read this book. But it is one that will haunt me.