Jon Krakauer

Author of Into the Wild

29+ Works 47,004 Members 1,196 Reviews 155 Favorited

About the Author

Jon Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on April 12, 1954. He received a degree in environmental studies from Hampshire College in Massachusetts in 1976. He worked as a carpenter, fisherman, and writer. He articles on mountain climbing appeared in several publications including GQ, show more National Geographic, Architectural Digest, Playboy, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone. In 1996, he climbed Mt. Everest, but a storm took the lives of four of the five teammates who reached the summit with him. An analysis of the calamity he wrote for Outside magazine received a National Magazine Award. An article he wrote for Smithsonian about volcanology received the 1997 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism. He is the author of several books including Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster; Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith; Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman; Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way; and Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town. His book, Into the Wild, was made into a movie in 2007. He is also the editor of the Modern Library Exploration series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Krakauer J, Jon Krakaur, Jon Krakaeur, Jon Krakauer, Krakauer Jon, Jon Krahauer, Krakauer John, Jon Krakaueer, John Krakauer, John Krakhaur, Jon Krackauer, Jon Krackauer, by Jon Krakauer, Jonathan Krakauer

Works by Jon Krakauer

Popular Recent

Into the Wild (1996) 18,047 copies

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (1996) 14,137 copies

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003) 8,909 copies

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009) 1,954 copies

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015) 1,468 copies

Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1992) 1,333 copies

Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way (2011) 471 copies

Into the Wild [2007 film] (2007) — Author — 227 copies

Iceland: Land of the Sagas (1990) — Photographer — 186 copies

Classic Krakauer: Essays on Wilderness and Risk (2018) 145 copies

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster {abridged audio} (1997) — Author & Reader — 96 copies

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (2018) 6 copies

Into the Wild | Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2009) 4 copies

Under the Banner of Heaven {abridged audio} (1994) 4 copies

Improve Your Energy: Dealing with problems (2014) 2 copies

How Chris McCandless Died: An Update 2 copies

Loving Them to Death 1 copy

巔峰 (1998) 1 copy

Into the Wild By Jon Krakauer 1 copy

Into The Wild by Krakauer, Jon 3rd (third) Edition (2007) 1 copy

Death of an Innocent: How Christopher McCandless Lost His Way in the Wilds 1 copy

Looking for new challenges, hard-core climbers turn to ice 1 copy

Outside, September 1996 (Into Thin Air) 1 copy

Outside, September 2006 Issue (2006) 1 copy

Rocky Times for Banff 1 copy

A new vision for a museum on the Mall 1 copy

Geologists worry about dangers of living 'under the volcano' 1 copy

High and Hallowed 1 copy

Into the wild: nelle terre selvagge 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Best American Essays of the Century (2000) — Contributor — 783 copies

High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places (1999) — Foreword, some editions — 483 copies

In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic (1917) — Preface, some editions — 433 copies

Farthest North (1897) — Introduction, some editions — 410 copies

The Wild Truth (2014) — Foreword — 398 copies

Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (2011) — Preface — 331 copies

Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer (2011) — Foreword — 217 copies

The Best American Sports Writing of the Century (1999) — Contributor — 192 copies

Epic: Stories of Survival from the World's Highest Peaks (1997) — Contributor — 176 copies

High: Stories of Survival from Everest and K2 (Adrenaline) (1998) — Contributor — 111 copies

The mountain of my fear {and} Deborah : a wilderness narrative (1991) — Foreword, some editions — 66 copies

Forget Me Not: A Memoir (2008) — Foreword — 55 copies

Where the Silence Rings: A Literary Companion to Mountains (2007) — Contributor — 11 copies

Playboy Magazine | October 1994 | Jennifer Lavoie (1994) — Contributor — 4 copies

Tagged

adventure (1,629) Alaska (699) autobiography (131) biography (1,321) climbing (369) crime (221) death (155) disaster (209) ebook (171) essays (220) Everest (714) exploration (149) fundamentalism (154) goodreads (131) Himalayas (138) history (648) journalism (222) memoir (638) Mormon (413) Mormonism (279) mountaineering (972) mountains (130) murder (163) nature (355) Nepal (134) non-fiction (4,945) outdoors (316) own (161) polygamy (188) read (558) religion (882) sports (189) survival (713) to-read (2,177) travel (749) true crime (399) unread (144) USA (180) Utah (144) wilderness (312)

Common Knowledge

Birthdate: 1954-04-12
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
Places of residence: Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA
Boulder, Colorado, USA
Education: Hampshire College (1977 | Environmental Studies)
Occupations: mountaineer
journalist
editor, Exploration series
Organizations: Outside
Awards and honors: American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature, 1999)
Agent: John Ware

Members

Discussions

True story: Young "supertramp" dies alone after eating potatoe seeds. in Name that Book (January 2013)

Reviews

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

I remember reading Krakauer's article in Outside magazine years ago while I was living in Alaska. The story is tragic and fascinating. This book provides more detail and perspective on McCandless' life.

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DocHobbs | 445 other reviews | May 27, 2024 |

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt.… by Jon Krakauer

It's a good book, but I didn't like how harsh the author was about some of the people on the mountain, or that he included very personal things in this book, like the last words that one man said to his wife.

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zeronetwo | 316 other reviews | May 14, 2024 |

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt.… by Jon Krakauer

I read this while on holiday. I've always been very fascinated by Mt. Everest. I'm not sure why as I'm not a mountain climber and reading about the awful conditions that climbers have to endure does not seem appealing at all. But it's interesting to read about while I'm sitting warm and cozy with a hot tea and my fireplace on! I really enjoyed this account (actually I don't know if enjoyed is the right word for reading about this tragedy) I was thoroughly interested in reading about how things came about and things that maybe could have been done differently. It was also interesting to read about the different climbers and the ones that are willing to admit this isn't going to happen today while others put their lives in danger just to accomplish their goal.
A very sad story but I thought it was well written and it seemed fairly objective to me.
This book was reviewed on the Literary Club Podcast episode 57
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1984185… (more)

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Piper29 | 316 other reviews | May 13, 2024 |

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount… by Jon Krakauer

Breathtaking! Definitely a must read.

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Chrissylou62 | 316 other reviews | Apr 11, 2024 |

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