No Picnic On Mount Kenya - Publishing History

Publishing History

Benuzzi, of Italian-Austrian parentage, initially wrote his account in both English and Italian from 1943–1946, while still in P.O.W. camps. The Italian version, with a marginally more detailed text, was first published in 1947 as Fuga sul Kenya – 17 giorni di liberta (L'Eroica, Milano; illustrated). The Italian version was translated into French and published in 1950 as Kenya, ou la Fugue Africaine (Arthaud, Paris; with illustrations, including Benuzzi's sketch of the trio's base-camp in the Hausberg Valley, with the peaks in the background and the ascent-route marked). 'Fuga' and 'Fugue' may also carry a secondary meaning, referring to the 'music' of the giant heather described in the book. The French edition helped inspire Roland Truffaut's August 1952 expedition to Mt Kenya, described in From Kenya to Kilimanjaro (London, 1957), during which the home-made crampons and other equipment of Benuzzi and Balletto were retrieved from Hausberg Col. These were later donated, with Benuzzi's permission, to the Musée de La Montagne, Chamonix. (Benuzzi's flag and message-bottle left on Lenana had been retrieved by English climbers; they were returned to Benuzzi who donated them to the Museo della Montagna, Torino.) The 2nd Italian edition (Tamari, Bologna, 1966; illustrated) moves Chapter 4, 'L'ignoto', a digression that gives background historical information on the mountain, to an Appendix. It also includes three sketches and four maps by Benuzzi, including a map of the peaks area showing his route up the NW ridge, but not his sketch of the base-camp.

The English version was published in February 1952 as No Picnic on Mount Kenya (William Kimber, London), with the subtitle The Story of Three P.O.W.s' Escape to Adventure. "No expedition on the mountain was ever a picnic" Vivienne de Watteville had written in her book Speak to the Earth (1935) about her 1929 visit to Mount Kenya. Benuzzi's English title, perhaps suggested by this line of de Watteville's, refers to the expression 'It was no picnic', meaning 'It was hard going', but with an ironic allusion to the climbers' meagre P.O.W. rations. There have been at least eighteen English impressions, some published without the subtitle. The Readers Union edition (1953), and the 'concise' version (ed. S. H. Burton) brought out by Longmans and Green in their 'Heritage of Literature Series' for schools (1960), helped popularise the book. The dust-cover of the English 2nd edition (Kimber, London, 1974) gives a 1970s' photograph of Benuzzi, Balletto and Barsotti and biographical updates; the 3rd English edition (Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, 1989, Introduction by Rick Ridgeway), updates the biographical information. In 1999 Lyon Press republished the book with the subtitle A Daring Escape, a Perilous Climb. In 1953 No Picnic on Mount Kenya was translated into German under the title Gefangen vom Mount Kenia : gefährliche Flucht in ein Bergsteigerabenteuer, and in 2002 a new German edition was released with the new title Flucht ins Abenteuer : 3 Kriegsgefangene besteigen den Mount Kenya. The book has also been translated into Swedish.