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Pardon me if my dates are off on this, but I first knew about Krakauer from Into Thin Air, which was (I believe) published a couple of years before Into the Wild.

No pardon necessary, but the dates are off. Krakauer's original article in _Outside_ was January of 1993. The book _Into the Wild_ was published in January 1996. _Into Thin Air_ was April of 1997.

I appreciated your compassionate thoughts, though, and I wanted to say that I haven't by any means ruled out the possibility that McCandless was mentally ill. I just don't want to jump to conclusions. In particular, I would regret people pinning a label on him that precludes us from engaging with the full and messy complexity of his real life.

In a way, the book isn't even about Chris McCandless. I think what makes it an outstanding story is Krakauer's frank account of his own ghosts and passions, as well as his profound empathy with a young man he never met.