One hundred sixty three years ago this May 12, the Donner Party left Independence, Mo., and set out toward California. I imagine that this time of year 163 years ago, the members of the Donner Party were already busily making preparations for the journey they expected would last just four months.

And contrary to popular belief, the Donners were prepared for that trip. They had all the necessary staples – loads of food, good, sturdy transportation, warm clothes. Tamsen Donner, wife of party leader George Donner and the subject of Gabrielle Burton’s new book Searching for Tamsen Donner, also brought the things she would need to set up a girls’ school – things like books and paints.

Those details transform the members of the Donner Party from names in a history book into real human beings. Those details also make the story of the Donner Party even more interesting.

Searching for Tamsen Donner was featured in the L.A. Times this weekend, both in this review, and in this blog. Blogger Carolyn Kellogg sums up the allure of the Donner Party thusly: That perfectly respectable people might be forced into cannibalism to stay alive was a terrifying, cautionary tale (with a lesson: avoid poorly researched shortcuts).

Anyway, we here at the University of Nebraska Press were thrilled that the L.A. Times finds the tale of the Donner Party as captivating as we do.

In other review news, Robert Camuto’s Corkscrewed was featured in a review in the Lincoln Journal Star this weekend. French wine comes to Lincoln!