JON KRAKAUER

'Jon Krakauer' (born April 12, 1954), is an American writer and mountaineer, well-known for outdoor and mountain-climbing writing.

Contents

Early life

Mountaineering

Magazine Contributions

Books

Criticisms

Selected bibliography

See also

References

External links

Early life

Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts as the third of five children and was raised in Corvallis, Oregon from the age of two. 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.

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. A year later, he and two others made the second ascent of The Moose's Tooth, a highly technical peak in the Alaska Range.
One year after graduating from college (1977), he spent three weeks by himself in the wilderness of the Stikine Icecap region of Alaska and climbed a new route on the Devils Thumb, an experience he described in ''Eiger Dreams'' and in ''Into the Wild. '' In 1992, he made his way to Cerro Torre in the Andes of Argentine Patagonia -- a shear, jagged granite peak atypical of those found in the Himalayas or Pacific Rim and considered to me one of the most difficult technical climbs in the world.
Krakauer made his most recognized climb in 1996 -- a guided ascent of Mount Everest. Soon after summitting the peak, Krakauer's team was met with disaster as four of five teammates (including group leader Rob Hall) perished while making their descent in the middle of a storm. A candid recollection of the event was published in ''Outside'' and eventually Into Thin Air. By the end of the climbing season, fifteen people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history. Krakauer publicly criticized the commercialization of Mt. Everest following this tragedy.

Magazine Contributions

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''.
On assignment from ''Outside'', Krakauer wrote an article focusing on two parties during his ascent of Mt Everest: 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.

Books

The bestseller ''Into the Wild'' was published in 1996 and secured Krakauer's reputation as an outstanding adventure writer, spending more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list. 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" has been adapted for film (director Sean Penn) and is slated for release on September 21, 2007.
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, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, 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. In the TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Krakauer has contributed royalties from Into Thin Air to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder
Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters rewarded Krakauer's journalism with the Academy Award in Literature in 1999: "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."
In 2003, '' 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.

Criticisms

Taiwanese team on the 1996 Everest climb Makalu Gau on the documentary ''Prayer Flags'', completed his own filmed rebuttal of Krakauer's book. In this rebuttal, Shimatsu addresses the (alleged) influence of diplomatic and commercial pressure on the Nepalese government leading to an excessive number of teams receiving semi- or illegal permits and the (alleged) abdication of duty by several Sherpas.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has objected to his work ''Under the Banner of Heaven'' declaring "This book is not history, and Krakauer is no historian. He is a storyteller who cuts corners to make the story sound good. His basic thesis appears to be that people who are religious are irrational, and that irrational people do strange things." The LDS Church provided Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor reviews of the book that described it as "misleading" or worse.^[1] In response, Krakauer criticized the LDS Church, citing the opinion of historian D. Michael Quinn, an ex-communicated member of the church, who wrote, "The tragic reality is that there have been occasions when Church leaders, teachers, and writers have not told the truth they knew about difficulties of the Mormon past, but have offered to the Saints instead a mixture of platitudes, half-truths, omissions, and plausible denials." Krakauer wrote, "I happen to share Dr. Quinn's perspective."^[2]

Selected bibliography

★ '' (1990) ISBN 0-385-48818-1

★ ''Into the Wild'' (1996) ISBN 0-385-48680-4

★ ''Into Thin Air'' (1997) ISBN 0-385-49208-1 (expanded from the original Outside Online article)

★ '' (2003) ISBN 0-385-50951-0.

See also

★ 1996 Everest Disaster

References

1. Excerpts from reviews of Under the Banner of Heaven
2. A Response from the Author

External links

★ Book Browse Biography

★ LDS Church response to Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven

★ Krakauer's response to LDS Church criticism