About Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer

Here's some information from our library database, Gale's Literature Resource Center, about Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild.

Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and raised from age two in Corvallis, Oregon, within reach of mountains that drew him into a lifelong love of climbing. His father, an active alpinist himself, introduced Krakauer to the sport at age eight. Krakauer graduated from Hampshire College in Massachusetts in 1976, then spent the next few years working solely to fund his passion for mountaineering, taking carpentry and commercial fishing jobs for five months and spending the rest of the year climbing. His writing career began with a magazine article about a climb he completed in 1977, alone, during which he charted a new route to the peak of Devil's Thumb in Alaska. When he began receiving regular magazine assignments, he decided to take on journalism as full-time work. Krakauer married Linda Moore in 1980 and attempted to curtail his highly dangerous avocation for her sake, but found himself unable to resist; he told an Outside Online interviewer that the conflict almost ruined their marriage, but eventually Linda accepted climbing as an integral part of her husband's career. He published a collection of his articles, Eiger Dreams, in 1990, and his next two books, Into the Wild (1996) and Into Thin Air (1998) were highly successful. Into the Wild spent over two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Into Thin Air, also a bestseller, was named Time magazine's best book of the year and propelled Krakauer onto the list of finalists for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999 for Into the Wild and Into Thin Air. In response to the events he recounted in Into Thin Air, Krakauer established the Everest '96 Memorial Fund, which provides humanitarian aid to the peoples of the Himalaya region through royalties from the book as a tribute to those who perished during the expedition.

Krakauer's books have begun as articles on subjects that he wanted to investigate in greater depth than a short essay would allow. Into the Wild recounts the true story of Chris McCandless, a young man restless with conventional life who traveled to the Alaskan wilderness intending to live off the land; woefully unprepared, he died of starvation. Four months after he began his adventure, hunters found McCandless's body and a desperate plea for rescue scrawled on a torn book page. McCandless was roundly criticized as foolhardy, but Krakauer looked past his fatal choice and crafted a compelling story, providing a fuller account of McCandless's background, emotional state, and his objectives. Into the Wild was adapted for film, with a screenplay and direction by Sean Penn, and released in 2007.

With Into Thin Air, Krakauer unintentionally became part of the story, which began as an assignment from Outside magazine to write about the increasing commercialization of climbing expeditions on Mount Everest. Krakauer revived a childhood dream to scale the famous mountain and signed on to participate in a climb while chronicling the experience along the way. His group reached the summit, but several people, including a veteran guide, perished during the descent when a storm blew in. His account of the tragedy was published first as an article in Outside and sparked a backlash from other climbers. Krakauer changed topics with Under the Banner of Heaven (2003), which explores the closed world of fundamentalist Mormons, a group with whom he had some contact as a child in Oregon. Krakauer did not shrink from controversial subject matter in this book either, delving into the highly charged topic of violence in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormon faith, and the development of fundamentalist splinter groups that have created legal and moral problems for the modern LDS movement. One such splinter group is profiled in Under the Banner of Heaven, which examines the true story of Ron and Dan Lafferty, brothers who in 1984 murdered their sister-in-law and her infant daughter in the name of God.

Krakauer has been praised for his ability to make nonfiction stories highly engaging--an ability critics find all the more impressive given that he has no formal education in journalism or literature. Critics received Into the Wild with kudos bordering at times on amazement at the skillful freshman entry into the literary world. Suzan Nightingale echoed the sentiments of many reviewers who reported that Krakauer's portrait gave them a curiosity about McCandless--and what he was seeking and may have failed to find. Krakauer's mountain-climbing tales benefit from his personal experience with the subject, which he says is not a sport but a way of life. Into Thin Air received strong criticism from many in the alpinist community who argued that Krakauer had profited from the tragedy. Krakauer responded by noting that he had joined the expedition as a journalist on assignment and, as such, it was his job to tell the story. Literary critics lauded Into Thin Air as skillfully told, but some also recounted arguments from other witnesses to the events who disputed Krakauer's account. In particular, Anatoli Boukreev, a well-known alpinist described by some as a champion of Himalayan climbing, took issue with Krakauer's characterization of him and wrote his own account, The Climb, which cast the descent in a different light. Critics praised Krakauer for not shying away from difficult issues in Under the Banner of Heaven, a book that to some is considered blasphemous. Krakauer's presentation of the history of the Mormon faith was described as insightful and thought-provoking, and some critics found parallels between the author's examination of religious fundamentalism in America and that of the Middle East. Robert Wright concluded that, in this way, the book "may have broader relevance than the author intended."

WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:
Eiger Dreams: Ventures among Men and Mountains (essays) 1990
Into the Wild (nonfiction) 1996
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster (nonfiction) 1998
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (nonfiction) 2003

Clip About Chris McCandless

Into the Woods

September will take us down some scary trails as we read both a fictional horror story, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King, and a non-fiction accounting, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Each one involves a young person "lost" in the woods, but in one case the person doesn't realize this until too late. They are both exciting reads, and I hope you enjoy them.

John Gardner and Grendel

Born in Batavia, New York, in 1933, John Champlin Gardner grew up in a farming family, although his father was also a preacher. His mother encouraged his literary interests, and he was introduced early to plays, operas and great literature. The accidental death of his younger brother when John was 11 years old scarred his life forever (John was unable to stop a 2-ton cultipacker he was towing from crushing his brother who had fallen off the tractor), and this event, written about in his story, "Redemption," caused a lifelong struggle with conflicted feelings of guilt.

In writing, at least, Gardner always stood for the moral choice. His book, On Moral Fiction, took a polemical view of fellow writers, who he believed were self-absorbed existentialists, disinterested in affirming the value of literature to move or inspire mankind. Gardner believed that art/literature should create models of virtue or heroism, visions of the possible, and should be agents of human transcendence over negative forces.

Gardner studied medieval literature on the graduate level and was an expert on Beowulf, among other texts. He was well-versed in philosophy and thoroughly conversant in literature, to the degree that he could interweave quotes, parts of poems and literary allusions from many sources into his own works. You will find this trait readily apparent in reading Grendel. He had taught Beowulf for 12 years before writing Grendel, and you may also detect some of his viewpoints about the author/art as agents of positive value in this work. Certainly his highly negative attitude toward existentialism stands out, particularly targeting Jean-Paul Sartre's book, Being and Nothingness.

John Gardner wrote with a love of words, images, and ideas that truly exceeds the ability of most writers. Author of such works as The Sunlight Dialogues, October Light, Nickel Mountain and Mickelsson's Ghosts, Gardner received national stature as an acclaimed author whose life was cut short by his accidental death in 1982 while riding his motorcycle to his teaching position.

Grendel Illustrated

Grendel has captured the artistic imaginations of illustrators for the Beowulf editions and even South Park cartoons, but "our Grendel" inspired a wonderful series of portraits by Emil Antonucci which mark the beginning of each chapter in John Gardner's book. Here Grendel's complexity of expressions indicate his capacity for thought processes and emotional states of mind. Have the illustrations by Antonucci affected how you feel about Grendel?

Next We Nibble on Grendel

Get ready to "tear into" Grendel by John Gardner for a reading experience that is both unique and engrossing....okay, and maybe a little bit gross, too! But we won't let a few dead bodies deter us from some great literary analysis of this critically acclaimed book!!

After all, this is a book about a monster/creature, but not the same monster that haunts the meadhall in the Old English poem, Beowulf, upon which the new story is loosely founded. Our Grendel is protohuman and poetic, philosophical and inquisitive, witty and awestruck. He is also a deeply flawed, murderous character trapped in his own mode of thinking and in his own inevitable role to be played out in the story. He is much more than a monster.

At a later date I will be posting some information about John Gardner, his moral vision and his hatred of existentialism, as well as some guideposts to help you navigate through the book. Please refer to the handout if you want to focus on any of the suggested points of interest noted there.

Saturday Samplers will discuss this great fictional work at our next meeting on June 7, 2008, at 3:30 p.m.

Share Your Comments on the Book

Feel free to add any comments or follow-up on any points you made yesterday regarding ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. We had a good discussion, but there's always more to say!

Meet the Author - ZZ Packer

ZZ Packer is an ebullient speaker and a spirited writer. Her short stories place keenly observed individuals in challenging or transformational situations, and she states, “When I am writing these stories, I am really concentrating on the characters and what are their circumstances and motivations and what do they want.” Indeed, her stories offer a strong sense of empathy for the characters, many of whom are young adults. Given the author’s age, 35, that is understandable.

As a child, ZZ changed her given name, Zuwena (meaning “good” in Swahili,) to “ZZ”, a family nickname. She says it made life easier for her, but it also demonstrates an individualistic flare. And, of course, ZZ Packer makes for a great author’s name!

Moving in her youth from Chicago to Atlanta and finally to Louisville, Kentucky, ZZ excelled at math and science and wished to become an engineer. She was accepted by MIT, but chose to attend Yale University where she developed an interest in writing. Graduate work in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University was followed by her participation in the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She then became a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Several of her stories have appeared in “The New Yorker” and her short story collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, was a New York Times Notable Book for 2003. This debut book was also nominated for the 2004 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. ZZ Packer is currently working on her first novel.

Here are a few interesting articles about her. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/packer.html

http://www.pitt.edu/~nidus/current/packer.html

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Saturday Samplers will dive into ZZ Packer's short story collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, for our next discussion on Saturday, May 3rd at 3:30 p.m. Copies of this book are available at the circulation desk for you to borrow.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere offers eight short stories which explore interesting characters in thought-provoking situations. Some of these stories fairly swoop along in a marvelous narrative; others move forward relentlessly toward a shattering or unsettling conclusion. Still others simply leave you with new insights into what it must be like to walk in someone else’s shoes… someone you might not normally consider to be in your realm of concern. These are memorable stories full of humor, sadness, and insight.

Share Your Comments On The Book

Thanks to all who attended our group discussion of Isaac's Storm this afternoon. We touched on a few areas of criticism and discussed a number of topics, but you may want to comment further on the book. Simply click on the comments link below and type in your thoughts.

If anyone is interested in writing a review of the book, I can post it on the library's book blog, Book News and More, http://bernardsvillereadersadvisory.blogspot.com/ at some point.

Galveston Rises

The Galveston Tribune printed this placard entitled "Galveston Was Not Born To Die" at the end of the year 1900, including a calendar for 1901. Scenes contrast the 1900 storm ruins with an inspirational drawing of a revitalised port. See an enlarged view of this placard at http://www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/storms/1900/Manuscripts/Placards/index.html

To learn about the rebuilding, the raising up of all the existing buildings, and the construction of a seawall, visit the Rosenberg Library's Galveston and Texas History Center webpages at http://www.gthcenter.org/index.html.

Isaac Cline - Other Dimensions

Following the tragedy of the Galveston Hurricane, Isaac Cline moved his family to New Orleans where he managed the U.S. Weather Bureau Station, among other jobs. He is credited with saving the city from a flood in 1903, having predicted that the Mississippi River valley was vulnerable to growing floodwaters at the time. While the U.S. Weather Service disagreed with his predictions, Cline persuaded the New Orleans levee board to temporarily raise the levees, which did, in fact, avert a spillover of floodwaters into the city.

Isaac Cline is seen here walking in New Orleans where he also owned the Art House, a glassware and art restoration shop. To read more about this man, please click on the link below.
http://www.1900storm.com/isaaccline/index.lasso

Victims of the Storm

Lithographic copy of the painting, Galveston's Awful Calamity, 1900.


Artist's rendering of victims on Tremont Street, Galveston.



Flood map of Galveston showing loss of property.




Orphans and sisters of St. Mary's Orphanage before the storm.





Isaac Cline's family.

"Time and Tide Wait for No Man"

Our first discussion book, Isaac's Storm, is now available at the circulation desk of Bernardsville Library, so borrow your copy soon. You'll find the book to be a gripping story propelled forward by the drama of true events as well as by the author's clever use of characters and historical context. It is moving and artful in its delivery, so readers of fiction and readers of nonfiction alike should find this book to be of interest to them. Meet to discuss this book on Saturday, April 5th, at 3:30 p.m. in the library's Community Room. All are welcome.

Storm's Destruction - Galveston

Photographs show the devastation to both frame and mortar buildings in Galveston, Texas, following the 1900 hurricane.

http://www.1900storm.com/photographs/index.lasso

Beware - The Storm Clouds Gather!

Isaac's Storm has to be a dream read for weather wonks who savor detailed descriptions of monster storms. It offers an exhaustive, but highly readable speculative account of the storm's slow development into a meteorological cataclysm heading Galveston's way. The sense of suspense and dread evident on the very first page of the book is there, indeed, for a good reason. If you'd like some information about this hurricane from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, then investigate "The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900" and related articles at http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/magazine/galv_hurricane/welcome.html.

Meet the Author - Erik Larson

Erik Larson certainly knows how to craft a great story from a blend of fictional elements and historical fact. His writing style, known as narrative or literary nonfiction, has been used to great effect not only in our first reading, Isaac’s Storm (1999), but also in other works by him, such as The Devil in the White City (2003) and Thunderstruck (2006).

Larson’s interest in history can be traced back to his studies in Russian culture and history at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his undergraduate degree. Yet he notes, “I'm not a historian; I’m a writer who tries to find stories and bring them to life.” Larson developed his writing skills at Columbia University, earning a graduate degree from the School of Journalism in 1978.

Quoted by Writer in September of 2003, he states, “I love trying to capture atmosphere, landscape, events, in prose. I love sinking into the past. What I’m trying to do for my readers is allow them to just fall into another time, and ideally not emerge until the book is done, with a changed sense of the past.” He attributes his literary influences to Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Leo Tolstoy, among others.

Erik Larson lives in Seattle, Washington, with his wife and three daughters. Mornings are dedicated to writing, either on a computer or legal pad, but he knows when to quit – around noon!

For further information on narrative nonfiction as a literary form or to read an interview with Erik Larson, click on the link to The University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication webpage.
http://lnf.uoregon.edu/index.shtml

TIP: For biographical information on Erik Larson or other authors, go to Bernardsville Public Library’s webpage http://bernardsvillelibrary.org/ and click on the online resources link which will take you to a Wilson Web biography database. That is where I found most of my information for this article.
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Let the Reading Begin

Saturday Samplers announces the first three titles we will be reading for our discussion group:

• Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson


• Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer


• Grendel by John Gardner

Isaac's Storm, a gripping piece of nonfiction, will be discussed first on April 5th. For a change of pace, we will next explore the humorous, insightful short stories of ZZ Packer on May 3rd, followed by John Gardner's unique fictional work on June 7th. Start your engines!