Jon Krakauer - Author of Into The Wild

Jon Krakauer was born in Corvallis, Oregon in 1954. His father got him into mountaineering at a pretty young age, when he was 8 years old. He graduated from Hampshire College in 1976 and became a carpenter and a salmon fisherman. He revolved his life around mountain climbing because he loved the sport so much and because he started at a young age. He climbed Mt. Everest in 1996 while some of his teammates lost their lives due to a storm that was happening. He wrote two other books, Into Thin Air, and Everest. Into Thin Air became a #1 New York Times bestseller. He also raised a lot of money for charities. Such as Educate the Children, and Veterans Helping Veterans Now. He raised about 1.7 million dollars for the charities he worked with. He also received an Academy Award in Literature in 1999. His most famous book was about a man named Chris McCandless who died of starvation and malnutrition in the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer was very fascinated by this story and that's why he wrote it. It is a true story that seems scary and quite disturbing because of what McCandless went through just to explore a new life he wanted. Krakauer accomplished many things and still continues to write stories about nature and the wilderness today.

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