Author · 1 summary
American journalist and writer
Jon Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, where his father took him climbing. He studied environmental science at Hampshire College and spent his twenties as a carpenter and fisherman, climbing hard routes in Alaska and elsewhere between jobs.
He began to write about the outdoors for magazines, above all Outside. In 1993 he wrote an article about Christopher McCandless, a young man found dead in an abandoned bus in Alaska after months alone in the wild. He expanded it into Into the Wild (1996), which traces McCandless's travels and his reasons for leaving his family and money behind. The book argues that McCandless was not simply reckless but was chasing a serious, if dangerous, idea of freedom.
Into Thin Air (1997) recounts the 1996 Everest disaster, which he survived as a reporter on the mountain. Some climbers and critics dispute parts of his accounts, including his theory of what killed McCandless. He lives in Colorado.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer tells the true story of Chris McCandless, a young college graduate who gave away his savings, walked into the Alaskan wilderness in 1992 and died there. For readers who want the facts, the debate and the ideas behind it.
New books, occasionally
