Author Guide · Narrative Non-fiction
Books Written by
On 10 May 1996 Jon Krakauer stood on the summit of Everest on assignment for Outside magazine. By the time the storm that hit the mountain that afternoon had passed, eight climbers were dead, among them his guide, Rob Hall. A year later he published Into Thin Air, his own account of it. Most of his books start the same way: one death, or one decision, that he cannot leave alone, whether it is a young man starving in an abandoned bus in Alaska, a mother and her baby killed in Utah in the name of God, or a football player shot by his own unit in Afghanistan. This guide covers his eight key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key books · 1990–2019 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Jon Krakauer has published eight books, from Eiger Dreams (1990) to Classic Krakauer (2019). The best known are Into the Wild (1996), about Christopher McCandless, and Into Thin Air (1997), his account of the 1996 Everest disaster, which he survived. Start with Into Thin Air; the guide below shows where each of the others leads.
Where to Start with Jon Krakauer
If you want his defining book
→ Into Thin Air (1997) — the 1996 Everest disaster, told by someone who was on the mountain.
If you want one person’s story
→ Into the Wild (1996) — the young man who walked into the Alaskan wilderness.
If you want true crime and religion
→ Under the Banner of Heaven (2003) — a double murder and the history of Mormon fundamentalism.
If you want institutions under scrutiny
→ Missoula (2015) — how police, prosecutors and a university handled rape cases.
8 Jon Krakauer Books, in Order
Eiger Dreams
His first book, a collection of magazine pieces from the 1980s on climbing and the people who do it: an attempt on the north face of the Eiger, the climbers of Chamonix, and “The Devils Thumb”, his account of climbing that Alaskan peak alone in 1977, at 23. It shows the subject that runs through his later work: why people take risks that can kill them.
Into the Wild
In April 1992 Christopher McCandless, 24, walked down the Stampede Trail in Alaska with little food and gear. His body was found on 6 September 1992 in an abandoned bus. Krakauer expanded his January 1993 Outside article into the book, tracing McCandless’s two years on the road and comparing it with his own reckless youth. His theory that toxic wild potato seeds contributed to the death is still disputed. Sean Penn filmed it in 2007.
Into Thin Air
Krakauer joined Rob Hall’s Adventure Consultants expedition to report for Outside on commercial climbing on Everest. On 10–11 May 1996 a storm caught several teams on the way down, and eight climbers died, including Hall and the rival guide Scott Fischer. The book is open about Krakauer’s own mistakes. It was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and its account of the guide Anatoli Boukreev was disputed.
Under the Banner of Heaven
In 1984 the brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty murdered their sister-in-law Brenda Lafferty and her baby daughter Erica after Ron said God had ordered it. Krakauer sets the case against the history of Mormonism from Joseph Smith to the Mountain Meadows massacre and the polygamous fundamentalist groups, including the FLDS Church. The LDS Church criticised the book’s history. FX on Hulu adapted it as a series in 2022, with Andrew Garfield.
Where Men Win Glory
Pat Tillman turned down an NFL contract to join the US Army Rangers after 11 September 2001 and was killed by fire from his own unit in Afghanistan in April 2004. The Army first said he died fighting the enemy. Krakauer tells Tillman’s life and then follows how the truth about his death was kept from his family and the public.
Three Cups of Deceit
A short book, published as an e-book by Byliner on 20 April 2011, three days after CBS’s 60 Minutes report on the same subject. Krakauer argues that parts of Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools were invented and that the money of his charity, the Central Asia Institute, was mismanaged. A 2012 Montana attorney general’s settlement required Mortenson to repay more than one million dollars to the charity.
Missoula
Between 2010 and 2012 a series of rapes reported at the University of Montana led to public outcry and a Justice Department investigation. Krakauer follows two cases in depth, one involving the university’s star quarterback, through the university, the Missoula police and the county attorney’s office, and explains why victims of trauma often behave in ways that are used against them.
Classic Krakauer
Magazine pieces from Outside, Smithsonian and elsewhere, mostly from the mid-1980s to the 1990s, with two from 2014. Subjects include the surfer Mark Foo, who drowned at Mavericks, the climber Fred Beckey, the threat of mudflows from Mount Rainier, abuse at a wilderness therapy camp, and the architect Christopher Alexander.
In What Order to Read Jon Krakauer
None of his books continues another, so you can follow your interest. Read in order, they show a widening subject: the early books are about climbers and wanderers who choose their risks, the later ones about institutions — a church, the Army, a university, a charity — and the people they fail.
Into the Wild and Into Thin Air make a natural pair, since he wrote them one after the other and each draws on his own climbing past. Read Eiger Dreams after them: it contains “The Devils Thumb”, the 1977 climb he returns to in Into the Wild.
A reading path
1. Into Thin Air (1997)
2. Into the Wild (1996)
3. Under the Banner of Heaven (2003)
4. Where Men Win Glory (2009)
5. Missoula (2015)
The years · 1954–2015
Quick facts about Jon Krakauer
- Known for
- Writing about people drawn to deadly risk, above all the 1996 Everest disaster, which he survived and recounted in Into Thin Air.
- 1954
- Born in Brookline, Massachusetts
- 1977
- Climbs the Devils Thumb in Alaska alone
- 1990
- Eiger Dreams
- 1997
- Into Thin Air
- 2015
- Missoula
- Born
- 12 April 1954, Brookline, Massachusetts; raised in Corvallis, Oregon
- Education
- Hampshire College, degree in environmental studies, 1976
- Worked
- Magazine writer, above all for Outside
- Everest
- Summited on 10 May 1996, the day of the storm that killed eight climbers
- Honours
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature (1999); Pulitzer finalist for Into Thin Air (1998)
- Married
- Linda Mariam Moore, in 1980
- Adaptations
- Into the Wild (2007 film); Under the Banner of Heaven (2022 series)
The red mark is 1997: Into Thin Air, his account of the Everest disaster he survived.
How Jon Krakauer Writes: Reporting from Inside the Risk
Krakauer is a climber who became a writer, and his first subject was his own world. In Into the Wild he sets McCandless’s story beside his own solo climb of the Devils Thumb at 23; in Into Thin Air he is one of the climbers whose choices he examines. He does not present himself as a neutral observer, and he says plainly where he thinks he went wrong.
His books are built on documents and interviews as much as on scenes: McCandless’s journal and the people who gave him lifts, court records in the Lafferty case, Army investigation files on Tillman, police reports in Missoula. He often keeps reporting after publication, adding postscripts and new editions when evidence changes, as with his theory about McCandless’s death.
That closeness is also where readers disagree with him. Some of the people in Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven rejected how he described them or their history, and he answered in print. For writers who work the same ground, from Sebastian Junger to David Grann, see Authors like Jon Krakauer.
Watch
Jon Krakauer with David Grann: Into Thin Air, thirty years on
Krakauer talks with David Grann at 92NY in May 2026, thirty years after the Everest disaster, about risk, memory and responsibility, and how a writer turns real events into a story.
Frequently asked questions about Jon Krakauer’s books
How many books has Jon Krakauer written?
Eight: Eiger Dreams (1990), Into the Wild (1996), Into Thin Air (1997), Under the Banner of Heaven (2003), Where Men Win Glory (2009), Three Cups of Deceit (2011), Missoula (2015) and Classic Krakauer (2019). Two of them, Eiger Dreams and Classic Krakauer, collect magazine pieces.
What are Jon Krakauer’s books in order?
Eiger Dreams (1990), Into the Wild (1996), Into Thin Air (1997), Under the Banner of Heaven (2003), Where Men Win Glory (2009), Three Cups of Deceit (2011), Missoula (2015) and Classic Krakauer (2019).
What order should I read Jon Krakauer’s books in?
There is no required order, since each book stands alone. Into Thin Air or Into the Wild is the usual first choice, depending on whether you want a group disaster or one person’s story.
Where should I start with Jon Krakauer?
Into Thin Air (1997). It is his most personal book and the clearest example of his subject, people choosing a risk that can kill them. If you would rather start with one person’s story, read Into the Wild.
What is Jon Krakauer’s most famous book?
Into the Wild (1996) and Into Thin Air (1997). Into the Wild follows Christopher McCandless into the Alaskan wilderness and was filmed by Sean Penn in 2007; Into Thin Air is Krakauer’s first-hand account of the 1996 Everest disaster.
Was Jon Krakauer actually on Everest during the events of Into Thin Air?
Yes. He was a client on Rob Hall’s Adventure Consultants expedition, reporting for Outside magazine, and reached the summit on 10 May 1996. Eight climbers died in the storm that followed, Hall among them, and the book includes Krakauer’s own choices and his guilt as a survivor.
Why was Into Thin Air controversial?
Mainly because of how it described Anatoli Boukreev, a guide on Scott Fischer’s team, who climbed without bottled oxygen and descended ahead of his clients. Boukreev answered in The Climb (1997, with G. Weston DeWalt), and the photographer Galen Rowell defended him. Sandy Hill Pittman and Gau Ming-ho also disputed their portrayal, while Neal Beidleman, David Breashears and Beck Weathers supported Krakauer’s account. Krakauer and Boukreev reached a truce in November 1997; Boukreev died in an avalanche on Annapurna weeks later.
Is Into the Wild a true story?
Yes. Christopher McCandless entered the Alaskan backcountry in April 1992 and his body was found in an abandoned bus that September. Some details are disputed: critics such as the Alaskan reporter Craig Medred say Krakauer inferred much of McCandless’s experience, and his theory that wild potato seeds contributed to the death is not universally accepted.
What did the LDS Church say about Under the Banner of Heaven?
The church’s history department said the book contained historical errors, and its public affairs office said it used extremists to suggest that Mormons in general are prone to violence. Krakauer replied in the 2004 paperback edition.
Did Jon Krakauer like the film Everest?
No. He said some details in Everest (2015), in which Michael Kelly played him, were fabricated and defamatory. The director, Baltasar Kormákur, said the film was not based on Into Thin Air.
What is Jon Krakauer’s writing about?
What drives people towards extreme risk, closed belief systems and institutional failure — from wilderness and mountaineering to religious fundamentalism, a military cover-up and campus sexual assault.
Is Jon Krakauer still alive?
Yes. He was born on 12 April 1954 in Brookline, Massachusetts, and grew up in Corvallis, Oregon. In May 2026 he marked thirty years since the Everest disaster in conversation with David Grann at 92NY.
Footnotes
- Jon Krakauer — Wikipedia
- Into Thin Air — Wikipedia
- Into the Wild (book) — Wikipedia
- Under the Banner of Heaven — Wikipedia
- Three Cups of Deceit — Wikipedia
- Classic Krakauer — Kirkus Reviews, 2019
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vast sweep of Tibet.”
— Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air (1997), the opening line
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendationsRead next
Authors like Jon Krakauer: who to read next →
More reading lists: Best-Selling Nonfiction Books
