Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954, in Brookline, Massachusetts) is an American writer and mountaineer employed by Outside magazine and currently living in Seattle.
Jon Krakauer has published numerous articles in major monthly publications such as National Geographic and Rolling Stone. His fame stems in particular from his account, Into Thin Air, which recounts, from his perspective, the tragic events that occurred during his ascent of Everest in May 1996. This expedition ended with the deaths of eight of its participants. A heated controversy erupted with guide Anatoli Boukreev, whose account of the Everest expedition differs significantly from Krakauer's in many respects.
Into Thin Air was adapted into the 1997 television film Into Thin Air: Death on Everest. This film, directed by Robert Markowitz, stars Peter Horton as Scott Fischer and Christopher McDonald as Jon Krakauer. It retains Jon Krakauer's perspective on these events, although details regarding responsibility differ significantly from the book.
He is also the author of The End of Solitude, about the fate of Christopher McCandless, a young American adventurer who dies of exhaustion after plant poisoning in Alaska. In 2007, Sean Penn adapted the book for the screen, Into the Wild.
Tragedy on Everest was once again adapted into Baltasar Kormákur's Everest, released in 2015. Michael Kelly plays Krakauer. Jon Krakauer is critical of certain scenes in the film, which allegedly did not take place, and states that he has not met Michael Kelly. On the other hand, he acknowledges one of the film's suggestions: his presence as a journalist certainly pushed the expedition leaders to take additional risks. He indicates that he regrets having participated in this expedition.
By God's Command, published in 2003, tells the story of an American news story: in 1984, near Salt Lake City, two dissident Mormon brothers murdered their sister-in-law and her fifteen-month-old daughter. In 2022, the book was adapted by Dustin Lance Black into a seven-episode television miniseries, By God's Command.
