{"product_id":"snow-mountain-passage-9780156011433","title":"Snow Mountain Passage","description":"\u003cem\u003eSnow Mountain Passage\u003c\/em\u003e is a powerful retelling of our most dramatic pioneer story--the ordeal of the Donner Party. Through the eyes of James Frazier Reed, one of the group's leaders, and the imagined \"Trail Notes\" of his daughter Patty, we journey along with the ill-fated group determined, at all costs, to make it to the California territory. \u003cbr\u003e James Reed is a proud, headstrong, yet devoted husband and father. As he and his family travel in the \"Palace Car,\" a huge, specially built--and ultimately cumbersome--covered wagon, they thrill to new sights and cope with conflict and constant danger. Yet when a fight between Reed and another driver ends in death, Reed is exiled from the group and heads over the mountains alone. The fate of the other families, including Reed's wife and four children, is sealed when they set out across a new, untested route through the Sierra--their final mountain pass. Arriving at the foothills just as the snows start to fall, they are left stranded for months--starving, freezing, and battling to survive--while Reed journeys across northern California, trying desperately to find means and men for a rescue party. \u003cbr\u003e An extraordinary tale of pride and redemption, \u003cem\u003eSnow Mountain Passage\u003c\/em\u003e is a brilliantly imagined and grippingly told story straight from American history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e*National Bestseller \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHouston, James D.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames D. Houston\u003c\/b\u003e (1933-2009) was the author of several novels and nonfiction works exploring the history and cultures of the western United States and the Asia\/Pacific region. His works include \u003ci\u003eSnow Mountain Passage, Continental Drift, In the Ring of Fire: A Pacific Basin Journey, \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e The Last Paradise, \u003c\/i\u003e which received a 1999 American Book Award for fiction. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, Jim received a National Endowment for the Arts writing grant, a Library of Congress Story Award, and traveled to Asia lecturing for the U.S.I.S. Arts America program. \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Houghton Mifflin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50872460050706,"sku":"9780156011433","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_81963d1e-d3d0-4368-90de-f70180988953.jpg?v=1737898530","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/snow-mountain-passage-9780156011433","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}