John Krakaur Biography

Born in 1954, Jon Krakauer grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, where his father introduced him to mountaineering as an 8-year-old. After graduating from Hampshire College in 1976, Krakauer divided his time between Colorado, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest. In May 1996 Krakauer reached the top of Mt. Everest, but during the descent a storm engulfed the peak, taking the lives of four of the five teammates who climbed to the summit with him. For the past two decades Krakauer's writing has been published in the likes of Outside, GEO, Architectural Digest, Rolling Stone, TIME, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and National Geographic. In 1998 Krakauer established the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, endowing it with royalties from INTO THIN AIR. In 1999 Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters-a prestigious award intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." Krakauer's latest book, which he has spent the last four years researching and writing, is UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN: A STORY OF VIOLENT FAITH, published by Doubleday in July 2003.


Work Cited- http://www.randomhouse.com/features/krakauer/author.html