Jon Krakauer Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Best Starting Points
Jon Krakauer's complete bibliography in order — from Into the Wild and Into Thin Air to Under the Banner of Heaven. Best starting points for new readers.
Jon Krakauer (b. 1954) is the most widely read American narrative nonfiction writer working in the tradition of outdoor adventure and investigative reporting. His books are characterised by meticulous research, first-person authority (he was on Everest; he retraced McCandless’s route), and a willingness to implicate himself in the stories he tells. His account of the 1996 Everest disaster in Into Thin Air is the foundational text of modern mountaineering literature.
He has also been an important voice on issues of institutional accountability: his writing on sex assault in college athletics (Missoula, 2015) contributed to the national conversation about how universities handle assault cases.
Where to Start
Into Thin Air (1997)
The best starting point — the 1996 Everest disaster from the perspective of a climber who was on the mountain. The immediacy of the account (Krakauer was above the death zone when the storm struck) and the book’s searching self-examination make it the most compelling of his books. The account of Rob Hall’s final hours — and his radio conversation with his pregnant wife in New Zealand as he died — is one of the most moving sequences in narrative nonfiction.
Into the Wild (1996)
The most widely known of Krakauer’s books — Christopher McCandless’s walk into the Alaskan wilderness and death by starvation. Krakauer identifies with McCandless’s desire to escape and finds in his story a reflection of a wider American yearning for wilderness as transcendence. The book is also a portrait of a young man whose relationship with his father was the engine of his escape; the account of that relationship, and of the family he left behind, gives the adventure narrative its human depth.
Under the Banner of Heaven (2003)
The most analytically ambitious of Krakauer’s books — a history of Mormon fundamentalism structured around a double murder. Krakauer’s research into the history of the LDS church, the practice of polygamy, and the various fundamentalist communities that have broken from the mainline Church is comprehensive and compellingly presented. The book was controversial among LDS members; Krakauer’s account is not hostile but is unflinching about the violence in Mormon history.
Complete Bibliography
| Title | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Eiger Dreams | 1990 | Early essays; climbing |
| Into the Wild | 1996 | McCandless; Alaska; most widely read |
| Into Thin Air | 1997 | Everest disaster; best starting point |
| Under the Banner of Heaven | 2003 | Mormon fundamentalism; murder |
| Where Men Win Glory | 2009 | Pat Tillman; NFL; Afghanistan |
| Missoula | 2015 | Sexual assault; university athletics |
A Master of Narrative Nonfiction
Jon Krakauer is one of the foremost practitioners of narrative nonfiction, a writer whose gripping, deeply researched accounts of adventure, disaster, and obsession combine compelling storytelling with rigorous investigation and probing insight. Krakauer writes narrative nonfiction of remarkable power, combining gripping storytelling with deep research and rigorous investigation, and his accounts of adventure, disaster, and human obsession are among the most compelling in the genre. His fiction-like narrative skill, his deep research, and his probing engagement with his subjects give his nonfiction its gripping power and its depth, transforming real events and people into compelling and illuminating narratives. This mastery of narrative nonfiction is central to Krakauer’s achievement, for his gripping, deeply researched accounts of adventure, disaster, and obsession combine compelling storytelling with rigorous investigation and probing insight. His ability to render real events with the narrative power of fiction while maintaining rigorous research and investigation makes him a master of the form. For readers, Krakauer offers the master’s narrative nonfiction, gripping and deeply researched accounts of adventure, disaster, and obsession. A master of narrative nonfiction, Krakauer combines gripping storytelling with rigorous investigation and probing insight in his deeply researched accounts of adventure, disaster, and obsession.
Adventure, Risk, and the Wild
A central subject of Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction is adventure, risk, and the human encounter with the wild, the allure and the danger of wilderness, mountains, and extreme experience, and the people drawn to test themselves against them. Krakauer is drawn to adventure, risk, and the wild, to the allure and the danger of wilderness, mountains, and extreme experience, and to the people who are drawn to test themselves against the natural world and the limits of human endurance. His celebrated accounts of wilderness and mountaineering explore the allure of the wild and the dangers of extreme adventure, the risks and the costs of testing oneself against nature, and the people drawn to these pursuits. This subject of adventure, risk, and the wild is central to Krakauer’s nonfiction, for he explores the allure and the danger of wilderness and extreme experience and the people drawn to test themselves against them, illuminating both the appeal and the cost of adventure and risk. His engagement with the wild and with extreme adventure gives his nonfiction its drama and its insight into the human attraction to risk and the wild. For readers, Krakauer offers a compelling exploration of adventure, risk, and the wild, the allure and danger of wilderness and extreme experience and the people drawn to them. Adventure, risk, and the wild are a central subject of Krakauer’s nonfiction, the allure and the danger of wilderness, mountains, and extreme experience, and the people drawn to test themselves against them.
Obsession and the Human Drive
A profound concern that runs through Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction is obsession and the human drive, the powerful and sometimes destructive forces of passion, belief, and compulsion that drive people to extraordinary and sometimes fatal lengths. Krakauer is fascinated by obsession and the human drive, by the powerful forces of passion, belief, ambition, and compulsion that drive people to extraordinary, extreme, and sometimes destructive or fatal lengths. His nonfiction explores the obsessions and drives that compel his subjects, the passions and beliefs that lead them to extreme adventure, to fanatical belief, or to fatal risk, and he probes the sources and the consequences of these powerful human drives. This concern with obsession and the human drive is central to Krakauer’s nonfiction, for he explores the powerful and sometimes destructive forces of passion, belief, and compulsion that drive people to extraordinary lengths, probing the sources and consequences of human obsession. His engagement with obsession gives his nonfiction its psychological depth and its insight into the powerful drives that shape human behavior. For readers, Krakauer offers a profound exploration of obsession and the human drive, the powerful forces of passion, belief, and compulsion that drive people to extraordinary lengths. Obsession and the human drive are a profound concern of Krakauer’s nonfiction, the powerful and sometimes destructive forces of passion, belief, and compulsion that drive people to extraordinary and sometimes fatal lengths.
Reading Order Recommendations
New to Krakauer: Into Thin Air → Into the Wild → Under the Banner of Heaven.
Adventure focus: Into Thin Air → Into the Wild → Eiger Dreams.
Investigative focus: Under the Banner of Heaven → Missoula → Where Men Win Glory.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Jon Krakauer book to start with?
Into Thin Air (1997) is the best starting point — Krakauer's first-person account of the 1996 Everest disaster, in which he was on the mountain when eight climbers died. The book is both a gripping narrative of the disaster as it unfolded and a searching examination of Krakauer's own role in it — he may have contributed to a climber's death through misidentification. Into the Wild (1996) is the more widely known starting point — the story of Christopher McCandless, who walked into the Alaskan wilderness in 1992 and died there — but Into Thin Air is the more formally accomplished.
What is Into the Wild about?
Into the Wild (1996) follows Christopher McCandless, a twenty-two-year-old who gave away his savings, abandoned his car, and walked into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992 with little food or equipment. He died of starvation four months later, his body discovered in an abandoned bus near Denali. Krakauer reconstructed McCandless's journey from his journals, the letters he wrote, and interviews with people who encountered him on the road. The book is both a portrait of a young man in flight from his family and background and a meditation on the American tradition of wilderness as escape.
What is Into Thin Air about?
Into Thin Air (1997) is Krakauer's account of the 1996 Everest season, during which he was on the mountain as a journalist for Outside magazine. A storm on May 10 killed eight climbers, including two expedition leaders, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. Krakauer's account of the disaster is extraordinarily immediate — he was above 25,000 feet when the storm struck — and searching in its self-examination. He questions his own decisions and actions during the descent and acknowledges that he may have contributed to a fellow climber's death through mistaken identification in the storm. The most gripping first-person account of mountaineering disaster available.
What is Under the Banner of Heaven about?
Under the Banner of Heaven (2003) uses the 1984 murders of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter — killed by her brothers-in-law, who claimed to have received a divine revelation commanding them to do it — as the basis for a comprehensive history of Mormon fundamentalism. Krakauer moves between the murder investigation, the trial, and the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: the founding by Joseph Smith, the practice of polygamy, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the various fundamentalist splinter groups that have refused to accept the mainline Church's renunciation of polygamy. The most comprehensive and readable account of Mormon fundamentalism available.
