by Jon Krakauer
Abruptly, the quiet is shattered by the percussive racket of the helicopter, which spirals down from the clouds and lands in a patch of fireweed. We climb inside; the chopper shoulders into the sky and then hovers for a moment before banking steeply to the southeast. For a few minutes the roof of the bus remains visible among the stunted trees, a tiny white gleam in a wild green sea, growing smaller and smaller, and then it’s gone.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this book would have been impossible without considerable assistance from the McCandless family, I am deeply indebted to Walt McCandless. Billie McCandless, Carine McCandless, Sam McCandless, and Shelly McCandless Garcia. They gave me full access to Chris’s papers, letters, and photographs and talked with me at great length. No family member made any attempt to exert control over the book’s content or direction, despite knowing that some material would be extremely painful to see in print. At the family’s request, twenty percent of the royalties generated by sales of Into the Wild will be donated to a scholarship fund in Chris McCandless’s name.
I am grateful to Doug Stumpf, who acquired the manuscript for Villard Books/Random House, and to David Rosenthal and Ruth Fecych, who edited the book with skill and care following Doug’s premature departure. Thanks, also, to Annik LaFarge, Adam Rothberg, Dan Rembert, Dennis Ambrose, Laura Taylor, Diana Frost, Deborah Foley, and Abigail Winograd at Villard/ Random House for their assistance.
This book began as an article in Outside magazine. I would like to thank Mark Bryant and Laura Hohnhold for assigning me the piece and shaping it so adroitly. Adam Horowitz, Greg Cliburn, Kiki Yablon, Larry Burke, Lisa Chase, Dan Ferrara, Sue Smith, Will Dana, Alex Heard, Donovan Webster, Kathy Martin, Brad Wetzler, and Jaqueline Lee worked on the article as well.
Special gratitude is owed to Linda Mariam Moore, Roman Dial, David Roberts, Sharon Roberts, Matt Hale, and Ed Ward for providing invaluable advice and criticism; to Margaret Davidson for creating the splendid maps; and to John Ware, my agent nonpareil.
Important contributions were also made by Dennis Burnett, Chris Fish, Eric Hathaway, Gordy Cucullu, Andy Horowitz, Kris Maxie Gillmer, Wayne Westerberg, Mary Westerberg, Gail Borah, Rod Wolf, Jan Burres, Ronald Franz, Gaylord Stuckey, Jim Gallien, Ken Thompson, Gordon Samel, Ferdie Swanson, Butch Killian, Paul Atkinson, Steve Carwile, Ken Kehrer, Bob Burroughs, Berle Mercer, Will Forsberg, Nick Jans, Mark Stoppel, Dan Solie, Andrew Liske, Peggy Dial, James Brady, Cliff Hudson, the late Mugs Stump, Kate Bull, Roger Ellis, Ken Sleight, Bud Walsh, Lori Zarza, George Dreeszen, Sharon Dreeszen, Eddie Dickson, Priscilla Russell, Arthur Kruckeberg, Paul Reichart, Doug Ewing, Sarah Gage, Mike Ralphs, Richard Keeler, Nancy J. Turner, Glen Wagner, Tom Clausen, John Bryant, Edward Treadwell, Lew Krakauer, Carol Krakauer, Karin Krakauer, Wendy Krakauer, Sarah Krakauer, Andrew Krakauer, Ruth Selig, and Peggy Langrall.
I benefited from the published work of journalists Johnny Dodd, Kris Capps, Steve Young, W. L. Rusho, Chip Brown, Glenn Randall, Jonathan Waterman, Debra McKinney, T. A. Badger, and Adam Biegel.
For providing inspiration, hospitality, friendship, and sage counsel, I am grateful to Kai Sandburn, Randy Babich, Jim Freeman, Steve Rottler, Fred Beckey, Maynard Miller, Jim Doherty, David Quammen, Tim Cahill, Rosalie Stewart, Shannon Costello, Alison Jo Stewart, Maureen Costello, Ariel Kohn, Kelsi Krakauer, Miriam Kohn, Deborah Shaw, Nick Miller, Greg Child, Dan Cauthorn, Kitty Calhoun Grissom, Colin Grissom, Dave Jones, Fran Kaul, David Trione, Dielle Havlis, Pat Joseph, Lee Joseph, Pierret Vogt, Paul Vogt, Ralph Moore, Mary Moore, and Woodrow O. Moore.
JON KRAKAUER
INTO THE WILD
Jon Krakauer is the author of Eiger Dreams, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Into Thin Air and is editor of the Modern Library Exploration series.
ALSO BY JON KRAKAUER
EIGER DREAMS
Ventures Among Men and Mountains
In Pakistan, the fearsome K2 kills thirteen of the world’s most experienced mountain climbers in one horrific summer. In Valdez, Alaska, two men scale a frozen waterfall over a four-hundred foot drop. In France, a hip international crowd of rock climbers, bungee jumpers, and paragliders figure out new ways to risk their lives on the towering peaks of Mont Blanc. Why do they do it? How do they do it? In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, Krakauer presents an unusual fraternity of daredevils, athletes, and misfits stretching the limits of the possible. From the paranoid confines of a snowbound tent, to the thunderous, suffocating terror of a white-out on Mount McKinley, Eiger Dreams spins tales of driven lives, sudden deaths, and incredible victories.
Travel/Essays/0-3 85-48818-1
INTO THIN AIR
A Personal Account of the ML Everest Disaster
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn’t slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen deprivation. As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29,028 feet (the cruising altitude of an Airbus jetliner), twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the top, unaware that the sky had begun to roil with clouds. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more, including Krakauer’s, in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for his epic account of the May 1996 disaster.
Sports/Mountaineering/0-385-49478-5
UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN
A Story of Violent Faith
At the core of Under the Banner of Heaven is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this “divinely inspired” crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, and unyielding faith.
He takes readers inside isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico where forty-thousand fundamentalists believe mainstream Mormonism went astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity, fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers and preach that when the world is swept clean in a hurricane of fire only their most obedient acolytes will be spared. Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism’s violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States and reveals a distinctly American brand of religious extremism.
True Crime/Religion/1-4000-3280-6
ANCHOR BOOKS
Available at your local bookstore, or call toll-free to order:
1-800-793-2665 (credit cards only).
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, FEBRUARY 1997
Copyright © 1996 by Jon Krakauer
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Krakauer, Jon.
Into the wild / Jon Krakauer.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Villard, © 1996.
1. McCandless, Christopher Johnson, 1968–1992. 2. Adventure and
adventurers—United States—Biography. 3. Wayfaring life—Alaska.
4. Wayfaring life—West (U.S.) 5. Hitchhiking—Alaska.
6. Hitchhiking—West (U.S.) 7. Alaska—Biography. 8. West (U.S.)—
Biography. I. Title.
[CT9971.M38K73 1997]
917.9804′5—dc20 96-43566
CIP
eISBN: 978-0-307-47686-9
Author photo © Linda M. Moore
www.anchorbooks.com
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Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
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