Writing a summary of an essay about a book - do I have to cite the book if I mention that the essay is written about it but don't quote or paraphrase from the book? (MLA)

maybe you don’t have to if you aren’t actually quoting from Krakauer’s work, but is there a downside to citing it? I’d do it since it’s the motivation or starting point for the whole essay.

No downside, though my English teacher is a stickler for perfect MLA.

Do it anyway – you might be wrong in not citing it, but you won’t be wrong in citing it unnecessarily.

Cite it to show that you got the information from somewhere (i.e. you did not just make it up).

Like I’ve said before, I have to use MLA format in the Italian department. But we add in a few bits from the citation methods used in Italy, I guess. Rather than a “Works Cited” titled as such, we give a “Bibliography” which includes all the works we’ve cited and consulted. Often I’ll read a ton of stuff for a paper, and though I’m not citing or paraphrasing it, I’ll still include it.

If you get information directly from the book (as in you read the actual book), then you have to cite it. Since it does not sound like you are getting the information from the actual book, but instead from the essay about the book, you need to cite the essay. It probably won’t hurt to play it safe, so you might want to cite the book anyway. If you want the definitive answer, you need to ask your teacher, since he/she will be the one who is grading your work.