Michael Wallis, the best-selling author of Route 66 and Billy the Kid, has published eighteen books and won numerous honors and awards. He is a popular public speaker and a highly acclaimed voice actor. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"Wallis has delved into an extraordinary mass of original material,
documents, diaries, accounts and letters, as well as new sources
apparently not available to previous authors, and produced not only
a definitive account of the Donner tragedy, but also a book so
gripping it can scarcely be put down. . . . Wallis has done a
superb job sifting through lurid tabloid moralizing and unreliable
accounts to explore the complex truths of human beings pushed to
the absolute limits of existence."
*Douglas Preston - New York Times Book Review*
"The saga of the Donner Party is one of the most horrific and
fascinating events in the history of the American West. A
cautionary tale at the time, it becomes in Michael Wallis’s
thorough and persuasive new telling, The Best Land Under Heaven,
emblematic of the more shadowy aspects of Manifest Destiny. . . .
[A] welcome update of a nightmarish tale."
*Buzzy Jackson - Boston Globe*
"[An] engaging account of the doomed journey . . . . Mr. Wallis
tells the story well and paints interesting portraits of the
characters."
*David A. Price - Wall Street Journal*
"An even-handed, briskly written history of the party, destined to
become the standard account of this horrid chapter of American
history."
*Timothy R. Smith - Washington Post*
"If you want the full, unvarnished, exceptionally researched and
documented, day-by-day description of what happened, look no
further . . . [Wallis] provides a study of the times and
circumstances and pioneer mindset that it took for farmers and
businessmen to decide to sell off their property, pack up their
families and set off in search of something better beyond the next
hill, over the horizon, past where the sun was last seen setting. .
. . Fascinating, and horrifying, and inspiring."
*Glen Seeber - The Oklahoman*
"Michael Wallis takes readers on an adventure full of excitement,
intrigue and harrowing results. . . Referencing myriad documents
and histories, Wallis presents a well-written and interesting
account of this terrible tragedy."
*Mike Whitmer - Deseret News*
"Adopting an empathetic approach bolstered by studious research and
geographical contextualization, biographer Wallis reclaims the
horrific story of the infamously ill-fated wagon train from the
annals of sensationalism…The Donner Party’s struggles and
determination continues to fascinate, and Wallis’s comprehensive
account of bravery, luck, and failure illuminates the realities of
westward expansion."
*Publishers Weekly, starred review*
"Wallis offers a vivid new look at the ill-fated Donner Party . . .
. Wallis’s use of primary sources, together with his dynamic
writing style, turns a familiar retelling into a real page-turner.
A welcome addition to all history collections."
*Patricia Ann Owens - Library Journal, starred review*
"Best-selling Wallis’ (David Crockett, 2011) account of their
tragic and thoroughly avoidable trek is well-researched, detailed,
and well-written. . . . Wallis recounts their bad decisions and
sufferings as well as the heroic efforts to rescue them with
sympathy and eloquence while placing them within the broader
context of the pursuit of the ‘Manifest Destiny’ to expand across
the continent. This is an excellent reexamination of an infamous
saga."
*Jay Freeman - Booklist*
"Nobody tells the stories of American history better than Michael
Wallis. He’s done it again with this superbly researched and
written account of the Donner Party trip west toward glory and
riches that ended in bizarre catastrophe. The Best Land Under
Heaven will clarify the facts of that infamous event as well as
captivate and entertain. There are few better reads than this."
*Jim Lehrer*
"Michael Wallis has outdone himself in The Best Land Under Heaven
by revisiting the sad wanderings of the doomed Donner Party. In
elegant prose, Wallis reveals how the death song of Manifest
Destiny had lured so many to irretrievably, and often tragically,
alter not only the course of their own lives but that of America,
too."
*Larry McMurtry, author of Lonesome Dove*
"Mr. Wallis has succeeded for the first time in compiling all
available pertinent historical facts into this book. It is a
must-have for everyone wanting the true story of the most epic saga
of survival during the westward movement."
*William A. "Bill" Springer, Great grandson of Captain George
Donner and the Curator of the Donner-Springer Family
Collection*
"You cannot understand the settlement of the American West without
understanding the facts and—tellingly—the myths of the tragic
Donner Party of 1846. Michael Wallis has done a superb job sifting
through the grumblings, resentments, and fatal delays of the wagon
train that came to symbolize both the folly and grit of our
westward expansion. Once I started, I could not put this account
down."
*Rinker Buck, best-selling author of The Oregon Trail: A New
American Journey and Flight of Passage*
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