Christopher McCandless

Christopher Johnson McCandless (; February 12, 1968 – August 1992), also known by his pseudonym "Alexander Supertramp", was an American adventurer who sought an increasingly nomadic lifestyle as he grew up. McCandless is the subject of '' Into the Wild'', a nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer that was later made into a full-length feature film.

After graduating from Emory University in Georgia in 1990, McCandless traveled across North America and eventually hitchhiked to Alaska in April 1992. There, he entered the Alaskan bush with minimal supplies, hoping to live simply off the land. On the eastern bank of the Sushana River, McCandless found an abandoned bus, Fairbanks Bus 142, which he used as a makeshift shelter until his death. In September, his decomposing body, weighing only , was found inside the bus by a hunter. McCandless's cause of death was officially ruled to be starvation, although the exact circumstances relating to his death remain the subject of some debate.

In January 1993, Krakauer published an article about McCandless in that month's issue of ''Outside'' magazine. He had been assigned the story and had written it under a tight deadline. Inspired by the details of McCandless's story, Krakauer wrote the biographical book ''Into the Wild'', which was subsequently adapted into a 2007 film directed by Sean Penn, with Emile Hirsch portraying McCandless. That same year, McCandless became the subject of Ron Lamothe's documentary ''The Call of the Wild''.

Early life

Christopher Johnson McCandless was born in Inglewood, California and spent his early childhood in El Segundo, California. He was the eldest child of Wilhelmina Marie "Billie" McCandless (née Johnson) and Walter "Walt" McCandless, and had a younger sister named Carine. McCandless also had six half-siblings from Walt's first marriage, who lived with their mother in California and later in Denver, Colorado. In 1976, the family relocated to Annandale, Virginia, where McCandless's father was hired as an antenna specialist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). McCandless's mother worked as a secretary for Hughes Aircraft. The couple went on to establish a successful consultancy business out of their home, specializing in Walt's area of expertise.'Into the Wild' Chris McCandless' Sister Says He Was Determined to Cut Ties with Parents
Eric Johnson, Gail Deutsch, Jasmine Brown, Alexa Valiente and Lauren Effron. ABC News. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2022

Carine McCandless alleged in her memoir ''The Wild Truth'' that her parents inflicted verbal and physical abuse upon each other and their children, often fueled by her father's alcoholism. She cited their abusive childhood, as well as his reading of Jack London's ''The Call of the Wild'', as the motivating factors in her brother's desire to "disappear" into the wilderness. In a statement released to the media shortly before the memoir was released, Walt and Billie McCandless denied their daughter's accusations, stating that her book is "fictionalized writing hathas absolutely nothing to do with our beloved son, Chris, his journey or his character. This whole unfortunate event in Chris's life 22 years ago is about Chris and his dreams."

In 1986, McCandless graduated from W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia. He excelled academically, although a number of teachers and fellow students observed that he "marched to the beat of a different drummer." McCandless also served as captain of the cross-country team, where he would urge teammates to treat running as a spiritual exercise in which they were "running against the forces of darkness ... all the evil in the world, all the hatred."

McCandless travelled to Southern California and reconnected with relatives and friends in the summer of 1986. While there McCandless learned that his father had lived for a time in a bigamous union with his second wife; he had also fathered a child with his first wife after the birth of his children by his second wife. Jon Krakauer speculated that this discovery may have had a profound impact on McCandless.

McCandless graduated from Emory University in May 1990 with a bachelor's degree in the double majors of history and anthropology. McCandless was an academic high achiever. After graduating, he donated his college savings of over $24,000 (approximately $ in ) to Oxfam and adopted a vagabond lifestyle, working when necessary as a restaurant food preparer and farm-hand. An avid outdoorsman, McCandless completed several lengthy wilderness hiking trips and paddled a canoe down a portion of the Colorado River before hitchhiking to Alaska in April 1992.

Personal life

McCandless held a particular interest in classic literature. According to Krakauer, some of his favorite writers were Jack London, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy and H. G. Wells