A great adventure.A haunting tragedy.An enduring love.In the spring of 1846, Tamsen Donner, her husband, George, their five daughters, and eighty other pioneers headed to California on the California-Oregon Trail in eager anticipation of new lives out West. Everything that could go wrong did, and an American legend was born.The Donner Party. We think we know their story--pioneers trapped in the mountains performing an unspeakable act to survive--but we know only that one harrowing part of it. Impatient with Desire brings us answers to the unanswerable question: What really happened in the four months the Donners were trapped in the mountains And it brings to stunning life a woman--and a love story--behind the myth.Tamsen Eustis Donner, born in 1801, taught school, wrote poetry, painted, botanized, and was fluent in French.
