The story of the Donner Party is very much the story of James F. Reed's family, not simply because the Reeds were prominent members, but because they left much documentary evidence: diaries, memoirs, correspondence and letters written en route and interviews shortly after the disaster. The adopted daughter of Reed, Virginia Reed Murphy's memoir is a noteworthy recounting of the Donner party disaster and its gruesome end. Her writing is sprightly, informal, and full of human interest.
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In the spring of 1846, 32 settlers left Springfield, Illinois, bound for California; only 18 of them survived the crossing. In just a few words listeners will think narrator Colleen Delaney must actually be the young girl telling of her family's westward crossing just three years before the Gold Rush. Delaney's soft voice for the young author's simple language and old-fashioned vocabulary transports us to another time and to her nightmare of hardship and death. A cruel winter caught the original party and some others in the Sierra Mountains, where 42 died of starvation and cold. Some ate human flesh. The desperate and whispery expression Delaney gives to the child's account makes it so personal we can feel her hunger and emotional pain. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
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Across the Plains in the Donner Party
by Virginia Reed Murphy
