Jon Krakauer

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Krakauer is said to have an "ability to recreate its effects with a lucid and terrifying intimacy." (Krakauer, Student). Jon Krakauer is a noted writer among the young and mountain climbers. An American nonfiction writer and mountaineer best known for his works and the outdoors and mountain climbing (Krakauer, Student). The intention of this paper is to review his life by focusing on biographical information, his literary background, and a brief summary of his major works and critiques of those pieces.

"It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough it is your God-Given right to have it" (Krakauer, Eiger Dreams). His birth place was in Brookline, Massachusetts but moved to Corvallis, Oregon when his was two years old. He was an athletic child since he was young, was a "competitive tennis player at Corvallis High School"(Krakauer, Student) where he then graduated in 1972, who there after enrolled into Hampshire College and took up Environmental Science. It has seemed that Jon Krakauer has a busy life from rock climbing, mountain climbing, writing books, being an editor-at-large for Outside magazine yet he has had time for friends, family, and for death. Rob Hall of New Zealand and Scott Fisher of the United States knowing of Krakauer passion for rock climbing decided to recruit Jon, and a few others, to climb Mountain Everest. This gave Krakauer a chance to write an article for Outside magazine, without knowledge of such experienced mountain climbers to face death, but what made them face a bigger challenge was the "unpredictability of nature" (Krakauer, UXL). It seemed from the start of his life to where he is now that ...

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...ure is the key to life, the window to beauty, but sometimes the destruction of man yet it is used by man for richness, shelter, but Krakauer, he uses nature as a distract of the current inhuman world. His life is full of understanding of the world around him and the pain it can cause; he used this in his books, and has allowed others to see through his eyes what is inevitable to see by those who crave the real harsh world that people decline to acknowledge.

Works Cited

Krakauer, Jon. Eiger Dreams. New York: Lyons and Buford, 1990, Print.

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: 1996, Print.

"Krakauer, Jon (1954-)." Student Resource Center. Detroit Gale, 2008. Student Resource Center - Gold. Web. 9 Mar. 2010

"Krakauer, Jon (1954-)." UXL Biographies. Online ed. Detroit: UXL, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Web. 9 Mar. 2010

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