Author Biography & Ethical Appeal: Jon Krakauer the author of Into the Wild was born April 12, 1954 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the son of a doctor and an amateur mountaineer. At age eight, he started mountain-climbing in Oregon where he grew up as a child. He attended Hampshire College in Amherst and after graduating he was a carpenter and worked as a commercial fisherman in Colorado and Alaska. He devoted most of his free time to climbing in the mountains. In 1977 he pioneered new trails up Devils Thumb in Southeast Alaska. He reached the top of Mt. Everest in 1996 even though four of his five teammates died on the descent down the mountain. Jon spent three years researching the story of McCandless to discover exactly what happened. Jon interviewed his friends and family and anyone who came across him in the last two years. In the book, Jon draws parallels between his own experience and motivations and those of the character McCandless.
Synopsis of the text &Author’s …show more content…
Krakauer found himself obsessed with the question of what led McCandless to this extreme journey. He was also connected because he saw many parallels between McCandless’s personality and behavior, and his own as a younger man. He decided to do more research and to make a book out of the story. Jon spent nearly three years researching the story in an effort to discover what exactly happened to McCandless. Krakauer interviewed McCandless's family, friends, and anyone who McCandless came across in his two years on the road. He also had access to McCandless's books and journals. He was able to get access to all of his photos and the letters he sent to people. Using all the information, as well as information about McCandless's childhood and time at college, Krakauer pieced together much of what McCandless story and what he thought happened to him during his time in the