Unfortunate Emigrants: Narratives on the Donner Party, edited by Kristin Johnson

A selection of rare and hard-to-find early accounts of the 1846 emigrant party that was trapped in the winter snows of the Sierra Nevada, recounting their strenuous and conflict-ridden trail west; their experiences of starvation, death, and cannibalism; and the Herculean, but disorganized, efforts of the Californians to rescue the survivors.