Jon Krakauer was born in 1954 in Corvallis, Oregon. Jon enjoyed traveling to Alaska all this life. In 1977,  he traveled alone to a remote icecap in Alaska. In 1996, Jon also reached the top of Mount Everest. He wrote many books, including Under the Banner of Heaven, and Into Thin Air, which was a number one best seller according to The New York Times. Into The Wild was probably his most famous book. Into The Wild was published in 1990, and was on the Best Seller list for two years. In 1999, Jon received an Academy Award for the, now movie, Into The Wild based off of his book.