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JON KRAKAUER
and Into the Wild
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Early Life
• Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts but was raised in Corvallis, Oregon from the age of two, as the
third of five children. He competed in tennis at Corvallis High School and graduated in 1972. He went on to
study at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, where in 1976 he received his degree in Environmental Studies.
In 1977, he met former climber Linda Mariam Moore; they married in 1980.
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Mountaineering
• In 1974, Krakauer was part of a group of seven friends pioneering peaks in the Arrigetch Peaks of the Brooks Range in Alaska and
was invited by American Alpine Journal to write about those experiences. Though he neither expected nor received a fee, he was
excited when the Journal published his article. One year after graduating from college, he climbed a new route on the Devils Thumb in
the Stikine Icecap region of Alaska, an experience he described in Eiger Dreams and in Into the Wild. In 1975, he and two others
made the second ascent of The Moose's Tooth, a highly technical peak in the Alaska Range.
• He is noted for climbing the west face of Cerro Torre in the Andes of Argentine Patagonia in 1992, then considered one of the hardest
technical climbs in the world.
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Magazine writing
• Much of Krakauer's popularity as a writer came from being a journalist for Outside magazine. In November
1983, he was able to abandon part-time work as a fisherman and a carpenter to become a full-time writer. His
freelance writing involved great variety; for instance, he wrote a monthly column on fitness for Playboy
magazine, in addition to his many works involving mountain climbing. His writing has also appeared in
Smithsonian, National Geographic Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Architectural Digest.
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Bestselling nonfiction
• The bestseller Into the Wild was published in 1996 and secured Krakauer's reputation as an outstanding adventure writer. The book
tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young man from a well-to-do East Coast family who, after graduating from college,
donated all of the money in his bank account to charity, changed his name to "Alexander Supertramp," and began a journey in the
American West. Nearly two years later, McCandless was found dead in the Alaska wilderness. In the book, Krakauer draws parallels
between his own experiences and motivations and those of McCandless. Krakauer also recounts the story of Everett Ruess, a young
artist and wanderer who disappeared in the Utah desert in 1934 at age 20. "Into The Wild" is being adapted for film, and directed by
Sean Penn. It is slated for release in 2007.
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• In May 1996, on assignment from Outside, Krakauer was in one of four Mount Everest summit-assault parties that sustained fatalities
when they were caught in a storm high up on the mountain. His writing focuses on two parties: the one he was in, led by Rob Hall, and
the one led by Scott Fischer, both of which successfully guided clients to the summit but experienced difficulty while descending. The
storm, and, in his estimation, irresponsible choices by guides of both parties, led to a number of deaths, including both head guides.
Krakauer received much criticism from other climbers due to his personal account of the Everest climb. Some climbers on the
expedition did not view the disaster in the same light as Krakauer presented it in his magazine article. Additionally, Krakauer did not
feel his article accurately covered the entire event in only one short account. In 1997, he expanded his September 1996 Outside article
into his best known work, Into Thin Air, describing those parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the
time. It reached first place on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list and was among the final three books considered for the
General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. As a result of his writings on the lure of the outdoors, Krakauer received an Academy
Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999.
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• In 2003, Under the Banner of Heaven became Krakauer's third non-fiction bestseller. The book examines
extremes of religious belief, particularly fundamentalist offshoots of Mormonism. Specifically, Krakauer looks
at the practice of polygamy among fundamentalist Mormons and places it in the context of the history of the
Mormon religion as a whole. Much of the focus of the book is on the Lafferty brothers, who murdered in the
name of their fundamentalist faith.
• As of 2004, he also edits the Exploration series of the Modern Library.
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Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
Krakauer retraces the steps across the American West that were followed by Chris McCandless, a young man
from a well-to-do family who mysteriously forfeited his inheritance to live alone in the wilderness of Alaska but
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was found dead only months after beginning his journey.
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Chris McCandless
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Into the Wild is the story of Christopher McCandless. After graduating from Emory University, one of America's best schools, McCandless gave
away his savings of $24,000 to OXFAM and disappeared, eventually abandoning his car and burning all of his money in the desert. A man named
Jim Gallien dropped McCandless off at Stampede Trail in Alaska. There McCandless headed down the trail to begin his Alaskan odyssey with only
10 lbs. of rice, a .22 caliber rifle, a camera, and some rifle rounds. He was discovered several months later by moose hunters, dead in the Alaskan
wilderness. The book begins with Christopher's body being found near an abandoned bus and retraces where he traveled during the two years he was
missing, including time he spent in Carthage, South Dakota with a man named Wayne Westerberg, and in California under the name Alexander
Supertramp. He also meets up with a "rubber tramp" named Jan Burres and her boyfriend Bob. Krakauer relates McCandless' intense personality as
possibly influenced by the writings of Leo Tolstoy, Thoreau, and Jack London (his favorite writer). In addition, the author explores the similarities
between McCandless's experiences and motivations and his own as a young man. Krakauer describes, in fairly great detail, his attempt to climb
Devils Thumb in Alaska. He also recounts the stories of other young men who disappeared in the wilderness, such as Everett Ruess, an artist and
wanderer who disappeared in the Utah desert in 1934 at age 20.
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• McCandless died after 112 days in the Alaskan wilderness, apparently after having eaten Eskimo potato (Hedysarum alpinum) seeds.
As Krakauer explains, McCandless had been eating the roots of the plant, which are edible. The seeds, however, can contain toxic
chemicals at certain times of the year. The toxins act as a defense mechanism to deter animals from eating the seeds and to ensure the
survival of the plant. The toxin prevents the absorption of glucose into the body, causing starvation. In other words, someone who
consumes these seeds could eat 10,000 calories every day and still starve. The author points out that it is possible for someone to
consume the seeds and live. This can happen when the body already has enough stored glucose to essentially ride it out. Since
McCandless generally lived on a diet of rice and had a less than 10% body fat, his body was unable to survive the effects of the toxin.
However, the potatoes from the area around the bus were tested in a lab UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks) and there was no sign
of toxins in the potatoes. This leaves a large amount of doubt into what McCandless actually died from.
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Characters
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Chris McCandless
Jan Burres
Bob - Boyfriend of Jan Burres
Wayne Westerberg
Ronald Franz
Walt McCandless
Billie McCandless
Carine McCandless
Ed Tise, Eric Gautier (DoP), Chris Reynolds (camera first assistant), Sean Penn w/ the Aaton 3Perf35 'Into the Wild'. Sean is shooting in Alaska, Arizona
deserts, Grand Canyon, wherever it is difficult to use film equipment...
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