Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954) is an American writer and mountaineer, well-known for outdoor and mountain-climbing writing.
Jon Krakauer | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Writer and Mountain Climber |
| Genre | Non fiction |
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. His father introduced him to mountaineering as an 8-year-old. 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 fell in love with former climber Linda Mariam Moore and they married in 1980. They lived in Seattle, Washington but moved to Boulder, Colorado after the release of Into Thin Air.[1]
Mountaineering
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 sheer, jagged granite peak more typical of those found in the Himalayas or Pacific Rim and considered to be one of the most difficult technical climbs in the world.
Krakauer's most recognized climb was a guided ascent of Mount Everest that became known as the 1996 Everest Disaster. Soon after summitting the peak, Krakauer's team met with disaster as four of six 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, nineteen 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, in addition to his many works involving mountain climbing. His writing has also appeared in Smithsonian, National Geographic Magazine, Rolling Stone, Playboy, 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 severe difficulty during the descent. 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.[citation needed] Some climbers such as Anatoli Boukreev and Makalu Gau did not view the disaster in the same light as Krakauer presented it in his magazine article.[citation needed] Additionally, Krakauer did not feel his article accurately covered the entire event in only one short account and clarified his initial mistakes, especially regarding the death of Andy Harris, in his later book after extensive interviews with survivors.
Books
Into the Wild
Into the Wild was published in 1996 and shortly thereafter spent 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, renamed himself "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. And he additionally 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 was adapted into a film, which was released on September 21, 2007.
Into Thin Air
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. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work and commented 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." 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.
Criticism of Into Thin Air
Yoichi Shimatsu, a former Japanese journalist, shot a 30-minute documentary, Prayer Flags, in response to the 1996 Everest Disaster recounted in Krakauer's Into Thin Air. In this rebuttal, Shimatsu addresses the critical remarks made about Taiwanese team leader, Makalu Ming-Ho Gau, as well as 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. [2]
In his own book The Climb, Scott Fischer's top guide on the ill-fated 1996 Everest expedition, the late Anatoli Boukreev, quotes another climber as having witnessed an exhausted, oxygen-starved Krakauer collapse and nearly tumble off the mountain to his death in an unroped section between the Hillary Step and the South Summit. Krakauer did not mention this incident in his book. In addition, Boukreev claims that Krakauer made a number of key observational mistakes up high, among them mistaking climber Martin Adams for Andy Harris and subsequently communicating to Base Camp that Harris had safely returned to high camp when he had not (Harris was similarly confused, and incorrectly believed his group's stashed oxygen tanks on the South Summit were empty). However, Krakauer admits to and thoroughly discusses this mistake in his book.
Under the Banner of Heaven
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 the fundamentalist Mormon religion and scrutinizes it under the context of Mormon religion throughout history past and present. Much of the focus of the book is on the Lafferty brothers, who murdered in the name of their fundamentalist faith.
As of 2004[update], he also edits the Exploration series of the Modern Library.
In 2006, Tom Elliott and Pawel Gula produced the documentary, Damned to Heaven, inspired by the book, Under the Banner of Heaven.
Criticism of Under the Banner of Heaven
Mike Otterson, director of Media Relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, declared to the Associated Press that "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."[3] Robert Millet, Professor of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University reviewed the book and described it as confusing, poorly organized, "misleading", erroneous, prejudicial and insulting.[3]
In response, Krakauer criticized the LDS Church, citing the opinion of one the most prominent LDS historian D. Michael Quinn, 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."[4]
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
In the 2007 season premiere of Iconoclasts on the Sundance Channel, Jon Krakauer mentions being deeply embroiled in the writing of a new book, but does not reveal the title, subject, or expected date of completion. The episode itself was filmed sometime after the filming of Into The Wild was completed, as Jon Krakauer and Sean Penn journey together to the bus inhabited by Christopher McCandless discussing the filming of his story and the effect it has had on them.
It was announced that Krakauer's new book, The Hero, was to be released by publisher Doubleday on October 14, 2008. It was later announced that Krakauer was unhappy with the manuscript.
The book, now titled Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman was released on September 15, 2009.
The book draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and research Krakauer performed in Afghanistan.[5]
Selected bibliography
- Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (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)
- Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003) ISBN 0-385-50951-0.
See also
References
- ^ "Krakauer's Conspicuous Silence". seattleweekly.com. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
- ^ "Everest tragedy survivor fights to clear his name". chinapeaks.com. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
- ^ a b "Church Response to Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven". Newsroom. Intellectual Reserve, Inc. 2003-06-27. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
- ^ Krakauer, Jon (2003-07-03). "A Response from the Author". Retrieved 2006-05-31.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|curly=ignored (help) - ^ http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6636050.html
External links
