num_pages: 256
description: 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 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. At twenty-three she sailed alone from Massachusetts to North Carolina when respectable women didn't travel alone. Years after losing her first husband Tully she married again for love this time to George Donner a prosperous farmer and in 1846 they set out for California with their five youngest children. Unlike many women who embarked reluctantly on the Oregon Trail Tamsen was eager to go. Later trapped in the mountains by early snows she had plenty of time to contemplate the wisdom of her decision and the cost of her wanderlust. Historians have long known that Tamsen kept a journal though it was never found. In Impatient with Desire  Burton draws on years of historical research to vividly imagine this lost journal--and paints a picture of a remarkable heroine in an extraordinary situation. Tamsen's unforgettable journey takes us from the cornfields of Illinois to the dusty Oregon Trail to the freezing Sierra Nevada Mountains where she was forced to confront an impossible choice. Impatient with Desire is a passionate heart-wrenching story of courage hope and love in hardship all told at a breathless pace. Intimate in tone and epic in scope Impatient with Desire is absolutely hypnotic. Praise for Impatient with Desire Gabrielle Burton brings us a moving story of human courage and frailty. Tamsen Donner's tale will stay with you long after you've read the last page.--Nancy Horan author of Loving Frank Few figures in the westward movement of this country have the almost mythic presence of Tamsen Donner. With her strong creative gifts an exceptional talent for clear and moving narrative and careful research Burton has most surely succeeded in her intention to capture Tamsen Donner's spirit and has given us a marvelous moving story of a brave loving--and real--woman.--Isabel Zuber author of Salt Told through fictional letters and diary entries written by Tamsen Donner Impatient with Desire is a hauntingly lyrical story of the ill-fated Donner Party one of the seminal events in America's westward movement. This bittersweet novel of love and sacrifice will tear at your heart.--Sandra Dallas author of Prayers for Sale
language: English
title: Impatient with Desire
publisher: Voice