A short life of the author
Jon Krakauer was born on 12 April 1954 in Brookline, Massachusetts, and raised in Corvallis, Oregon, where his father, a physician and competitive climber, introduced him to mountaineering. He attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, graduating in 1976. For the next two decades he worked as a carpenter, a commercial fisherman in Alaska, and a freelance writer, contributing to outdoor magazines including Outside, Smithsonian, and National Geographic.
Life and Career
Krakauer’s early reputation was built on climbing journalism. Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990), a collection of magazine pieces about climbing, established his ability to write about extreme environments with literary precision and psychological acuity.
Into the Wild (1996) was his breakthrough. Based on a 1993 Outside article about Christopher McCandless, a young man who donated his savings to charity, abandoned his car, and walked into the Alaskan wilderness where he starved to death in an abandoned bus, the book was a meditation on idealism, self-destruction, and the American romance with the frontier. Krakauer’s identification with McCandless — he too had been a young man drawn to dangerous solo adventures — gave the narrative an emotional intensity that distinguished it from conventional outdoor journalism. The book became a bestseller, was assigned in high school and college courses across the country, and was adapted into a 2007 Sean Penn film.
Into Thin Air (1997) was written under extraordinary circumstances. Krakauer was on assignment for Outside on Mount Everest during the May 1996 disaster in which eight climbers died, including his guide Rob Hall. The book — a first-person account of the expedition, the storm, and the catastrophic decision-making that led to the deaths — became the best-selling mountaineering book ever written and one of the great works of disaster narrative. Its account of summit fever, hubris, and the commercialisation of Everest sparked a debate about mountaineering ethics that continues to this day.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003) marked a departure from outdoor writing. An investigation of a double murder committed by fundamentalist Mormon brothers, the book was also a history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a meditation on religious extremism. The LDS Church denounced it; critics praised it as fearless journalism.
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009) investigated the death by friendly fire of the NFL-player-turned-Army-Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the military’s subsequent cover-up. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015) examined sexual assault at the University of Montana and the systemic failures of the campus judicial process.
Major Works and Themes
Krakauer’s work is driven by two related obsessions: the human desire for extreme experience and the catastrophic consequences when that desire collides with reality. His subjects — mountaineers, wilderness seekers, religious fanatics, soldiers — are people who pursue transcendence through risk, and his narratives document what happens when the risk turns lethal. He is also a meticulous investigative reporter whose later work holds institutions — the military, the Mormon Church, university administrations — accountable for failures that cost lives.
Into the Wild (1996) is his most influential book — a modern American parable. Into Thin Air (1997) is his most viscerally powerful — a survival narrative of almost unbearable tension. Under the Banner of Heaven (2003) is his most intellectually ambitious.
Critical Reception and Legacy
Krakauer is widely regarded as the finest American adventure writer since John McPhee and one of the best investigative nonfiction writers of his generation. Into the Wild and Into Thin Air are modern classics of narrative nonfiction, and their influence on subsequent outdoor and adventure writing is pervasive.
Key Works
- Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990)
- Into the Wild (1996)
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (1997)
- Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003)
- Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009)
- Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015)
Collecting Krakauer
Jon Krakauer’s books are collected by outdoor enthusiasts, nonfiction readers, and adventure-writing aficionados.
Into the Wild (1996, Villard/Random House, New York) is the centrepiece. The first edition, identified by the full number line on the copyright page, had a moderate first printing. Fine copies in the dust jacket bring $200–$600. Signed copies, available from limited events, command $400–$900.
Into Thin Air (1997, Villard) had a larger printing driven by pre-publication attention but first printings are in demand at $100–$300. Signed copies bring $250–$600.
Eiger Dreams (1990, Lyons & Burford, New York) is his first book and the scarcest major title, at $200–$500 for fine first editions.
Under the Banner of Heaven (2003, Doubleday) is available at $50–$150.
Krakauer does not sign frequently or publicly. Signed copies are relatively scarce and command premiums accordingly.