The No-Return Trail

by Sonia Levitin

A fictionalized account of the 1841 Bidwell-Bartleson expedition which included seventeen-year-old Nancy Kelsey, the first American woman to journey from Missouri to California.

Genres: Historical Fiction

154 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1978

About the author

Sonia Levitin is a German-American novelist, artist, producer, Holocaust Survivor, and author of over forty novels and picture books for young adults and children, as well as several theatrical plays and published essays on various topics for adults. Her book Incident at Loring Groves won an Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Reviews

[Cynthia Egbert]

Do you ever stand in front of your bookshelves and let the universe know that you are open to reading whatever book you are drawn to? Well, I do this on a regular basis and this one jumped out at me when I tried this exercise yesterday. I am fairly certain that I know why. I needed the reminder that I may be facing hard things but at least I am doing hard things in serious comfort. I could never have been a pioneer and done what Nancy Kelsey did (the first woman to make the overland journey into California). I just noticed that my copy is actually signed by the author which is always a fun discovery, especially since this author is a remarkable woman in her own right as a Holocaust survivor and prolific writer. This is not great literature but it is a compelling, if fictionalized, story of a remarkable woman who has been ignored by most historians.

[Valerie]

Oh, wow. Based on the history of the first white woman to cross the plains and the mountains to reach California in 1841, and the struggles their company had to overcome, really made me ask myself if I could have done what she did, with a small baby in her arms.

[Clarissa]

I think I would have liked this one better had I known from the start that it was based on truth. I spent the whole time thinking it was a corny YA novel about a teenager in an adult situation. Then I read the epilogue and had to revisit my opinion. It is sad that I don't know how much of it was based on reality and how much of it was holes in the historical record, filled in by a creative novelist. Worth the read, overall.