Christopher Johnson McCandless

Christopher Johnson McCandless ( February 12, 1968 – c. 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 67 pounds (30 kg), 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, born in July of 1971. 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.

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 [that] has 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."

In the summer of 1986, McCandless travelled to Southern California and reconnected with relatives and friends. 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 $54,000 in 2022) 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 had 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. He was also heavily influenced by 19th-century American writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, and was engrossed by his essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. McCandless highlighted a section on chastity in Thoreau's Walden, which has raised questions regarding his sexuality. There is no indication of McCandless having any romantic partners throughout his life, and he is believed to have remained celibate, although his sister Carine recalls how one night, as a teenager, McCandless drunkenly attempted to bring a girl up to his room, which awakened his mother Billie, who sent the girl home. While staying in Niland Slabs, a seventeen-year-old girl named Tracy pursued McCandless romantically; however, McCandless rejected her advances. Wayne Westerburg recalls McCandless stating that he hoped to get married and have a family in his future.

Travels

McCandless left Virginia in the summer of 1990, driving a Datsun west in an apparent cross-country trip to California. His car was in poor condition and suffered numerous breakdowns as he made his way out of the eastern United States. He also carried no car insurance on the vehicle and was driving with expired license plates. By the end of the summer, McCandless had reached the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where a flash flood disabled his car. Fearful of fines or possibly even arrest due to lack of a valid license, registration, and insurance, McCandless removed the car's license plates, took what he could carry, and kept moving on foot. His car was later found, repaired, and put into service as an undercover vehicle for the local police department.

Traveling northwest, McCandless then hitchhiked into the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he broke into a closed cabin to steal food, supplies, and money. Throughout the winter of 1990 and in 1991, McCandless appears to have lived in hermit camps with other vagrants in the Sierra Nevada region. He was suspected of burglarizing other cabins when food and money ran low, but only one case was ever positively confirmed by authorities after his death.

Death

McCandless's final written journal entry, noted as "Day 107", simply read, "BEAUTIFUL BLUE BERRIES." Days 108 through 112 contained no words and were marked only with slashes, and on Day 113, there was no entry. The exact date and time of his death are unknown. Near the time of his death, McCandless took a picture of himself waving while holding a written note, which read:

I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!

On September 6, 1992, a group of hunters who were looking for shelter for the night came upon the converted bus where McCandless had been staying. Upon entering, they smelled what they thought was rotting food and discovered "a lump" in a sleeping bag in the back of the bus. The hunters radioed police, who arrived the following day. They found McCandless's decomposing remains in the sleeping bag. It is theorized that he died from starvation approximately two weeks before his body was found.