Into the Wild: Krakauer--Short Biography


Before writing Into the Wild, Krakauer was a best-selling author and long-time writer for Outside magazine. He was born and raised in Corvallis, Oregon and received a degree in environmental studies from Hampshire College in Massachusetts. After college, he worked as a carpenter and commercial salmon fisherman.

Krakauer began his writing career with Outside magazine, but his early freelance work was also featured in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Architectural Digest. In later years, his articles appeared in GEO, TIME, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.





Jon Krakauer developed a passion for mountaineering at eight years old, and, starting with his writing for Outside Magazine, focused his craft on a love for the outdoors. One of the defining points in his life was three weeks he spent in solitude on the Stikine Icecap in Southeast Alaska and a dangerous decision to forge a new path up the Devil's Thumb alone, an experience which almost took his life. Another well-known climb of his was up the Cerro Torre in the Andes, one of the world's toughest technical summits.

Of course, Krakauer's most famous venture was the ill-fated Mount Everest disaster described in Into Thin Air when four of Krakauer's teammates met their deaths on the peak in a bad storm. First recalling the tragic event in an Outside magazine article which earned a National Magazine Award, he later turned it into a best-selling book. Fifteen people died on Everest climbs that same year--more people that died any other year in Everest history--Krakauer became an open critic of those promoting the challenging peak for commercial gain. This is ironic considering the number of critics who berate Krakauer and Sean Penn for what some see as glamorization of young Chris McCandless' tragic mistakes.

After Into Thin Air reached best-seller status, it was dubbed as "Book of the Year" by TIME magazine, one of the "Best Books of the Year" by the New York Times Book Review, a finalist for a 1997 National Book Critics Circle Award, and one of three finalists for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in General Non-Fiction. It is now available in twenty-four different languages and truly holds a place in the top ranks of modern non-fiction.

Into the Wild, another story about taking unnecessary risks and facing the consequences, also started as an article in Time Magazine. As he explores Chris Joseph McCandless' spiritual and physical journey, trying to find sense of the risks McCandless took when he walked into the wild, Krakauer recounts his own foolish decision to climb the Devil's Thumb alone and attempts to use the parallels between their experiences to reach a greater understanding. Krakauer expresses a great admiration for McCandless' spiritual journey and strives to show he was not just another nutcase walking unprepared into the Alaskan wilderness. Into the Wild became another best-seller.

Today, Krakauer is known for his charity work. He participates in the American Himalayan Foundation and the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation, and after the Everest disaster he formed the Everest '96 Memorial Fund using royalties from Into Thin Air to assist impoverished Himalayans and support environmental organizations.

Krakauer has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, who stated that "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."

Other notable works include Eiger Dreams, a collection of mountaineering essays, and a book of photographs called Iceland: Land of the Sagas. In his latest book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, Krakauer examines his experiences with religious fundamentalism and the power it has to shape lives. He is also the editor of the Modern Library Exploration series, a collection of previously out of print exploration/adventure classics which explore "the shifting rationales given by explorers over the ages for why anyone would willingly subject himself to such unthinkable hazards and hardships."

With the success of Into Thin Air and Into the Wild, Krakauer has established himself as a modern literary legend, and his career will surely bring future success.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, this is really interesting. I just rented "Into the Wild" from http://www.audiobooks.net/audiobooks.php but I had no idea about all of Krakauer's ventures. I'm very interested to read "Into Thin Air" now (or listen to for that matter).

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