Editing Chris McCandless (section)

==Early life==
Christopher Johnson McCandless was born in [[Inglewood, California|Inglewood]], [[California]], and spent his early childhood in [[El Segundo, California|El Segundo]], [[California]]. He was the elder child of Wilhelmina Marie "Billie" McCandless ([[birth name|''née'']] Johnson) and Walter "Walt" McCandless, and had a younger sister named Carine, born in July 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|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 established a consulting business out of their home, specializing in Walt's area of expertise.<ref name="ABC News">[https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wild-chris-mccandless-sisters-journey-escape-traumatic-childhood/story?id=26743275 '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</ref>

Carine McCandless alleged in her memoir ''The Wild Truth'' that her parents inflicted [[verbal abuse|verbal]] and [[physical abuse|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.<ref>{{Cite book| last=McCandless |first=Carine |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/957994010 |title=The wild truth |date=November 17, 2015 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-232515-0 |oclc=957994010}}</ref> 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."<ref name="ABC News"/>

In 1986, McCandless graduated from [[Wilbert Tucker Woodson High School|W.T. Woodson High School]] in [[Fairfax, Virginia]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Preston |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102302042.html |title=Remembering an Athlete Who Never Returned From the Wild |date=October 25, 2007 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> 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 running|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&nbsp;... all the evil in the world, all the hatred."<ref name="Krakauer">{{cite magazine |first=Jon |last=Krakauer |author-link=Jon Krakauer |url=http://hudson.k12.oh.us/cms/lib08/OH01914911/Centricity/Domain/1167/Krakauer%20article%20McCandless.pdf |title=Death of an Innocent: How Christopher McCandless Lost His Way in the Wilds|magazine=[[Outside (magazine)|Outside]] |date=January 1993 |access-date=2008-04-04 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303095400/http://hudson.k12.oh.us/cms/lib08/OH01914911/Centricity/Domain/1167/Krakauer%20article%20McCandless.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the summer of 1986, McCandless travelled to [[Southern California]] and reconnected with relatives and friends. While he was there, McCandless learned that his father had lived for a time in a [[bigamy|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.<ref name="Krakauer 1997 166">{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |title=[[Into the Wild (Krakauer book)|Into the Wild]] |publisher=Anchor |year=1997 |isbn=0-385-48680-4 |location=[[New York City]] |page=166 |author-link=Jon Krakauer}}</ref>

McCandless graduated from [[Emory University]] in May 1990 with a [[bachelor's degree]] in the double majors of [[history]] and [[anthropology]].<ref name="Krakauer" /> McCandless was an academic high achiever.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |title=Into the Wild |publisher=Anchor |year=1997 |isbn=0-385-48680-4 |location=[[New York City]] |page=21 |author-link=Jon Krakauer}}</ref> After graduating, he donated his college savings of over $24,000 (approximately ${{Inflation|US|24000|1990|r=-3|fmt=c}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}<!--Please do not try to manually edit/update this value; It is done automatically with a template.-->) to [[Oxfam]] and adopted a [[vagabond]] lifestyle, working when necessary as a restaurant food preparer and farm-hand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McCandless |first=Carine |title=The Wild Truth |date=2014 |publisher=Harper One |isbn=978-0-06-232514-3 |location=New York City}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krakauer |first=Jon |url=https://archive.org/details/intowild00krak_1/page/5 |title=Into the Wild |date=1996 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-679-42850-X |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/intowild00krak_1/page/5 5, 32–36]}}</ref>