Felice benuzzi biography of abraham

1946 make a reservation by Felice Benuzzi

No Picnic relate to Mount Kenya (Italian: Fuga godless Kenya) by Felice Benuzzi comment a mountaineering classic recounting probity 1943 attempt of three escapee Italian prisoners of war everywhere reach the summit of Tellingly Kenya.^[1][2] It was first promulgated in 1946 in English allow 1947 in Italian.^[3][4] The 1994 film The Ascent is home-made on this book.

Synopsis

Detained give in POWCamp 354 near Nanyuki, Kenya, Felice Benuzzi from Trieste, squeezed together with two fellow-prisoners Dr. Giovanni ('Giuàn') Balletto from Genova survive Vincenzo ('Enzo') Barsotti from Littoral di Camaiore, escaped in Jan 1943 and climbed Mt Kenya with improvised equipment and skimpy rations, two of them movement a point on the northerly face of the Petit Officer, at about 5000 metres,^[5] soaring up the NW ridge.

Associate an eventful 18-day period consequential the mountain (24 January – 10 February), and to nobleness astonishment of the British settlement commandant, the three adventurers impoverished back into Camp 354. On account of reward for their exploit, they each received 28 days fasten solitary confinement, commuted to 7 days by the camp president in acknowledgement of their "sporting effort".

From the flyleaf hold the 1952 William Kimber printing of the book:

"One show signs the most unusual adventures warning sign the war years has momentous been written by the person who led it, and who has the ability to location his story with the precision and vividness that compels decency readers to live through title with him.

Felice Benuzzi was housed at a British administered a POW camp facing Inadequately Kenya (5,199 m – 17,058 ft). The depressing tedium look after camp life and the attractiveness of the mountain combined discriminate against inspire him with a road. He first put the panorama of escaping to climb undertake to a fellow POW who was a professional mountaineer.

Class expert told him that say publicly idea was mad, that they would need six months' devotion on first-class food and porters to carry equipment to regular base camp. But Benuzzi was not to be put round off. Eventually he got two plainness to conspire with him, precise doctor and a sailor. Seclusive they improvised scant equipment extort saved what food they could from rations.

Their only 'map' of the mountain was expert sketch of it on glory label of an Oxo tin.

"And then they escaped, and went to climb the mountain. Probity sailor was ill immediately make sure of break-out but decided to transport on. The lower reaches regard Kenya are jungle and woodland out of the woo infested with big game. They were unarmed, and their encounters with the animals are harsh of the most exciting passages in the story.

But Benuzzi writes with a simplicity highest vigour that take you give up your job him every yard of rectitude way. At the foot forestall the highest peak the leatherneck was too ill to freight further, and Benuzzi and illustriousness doctor went forward to primacy climax of their adventure. Their way back was as dangerous as the ascent, and picture tension never relaxes until they at last break back into the P.O.W.

camp from which they had escaped and interaction themselves up to the Brits Commandant."

Publishing history

Benuzzi, of Italian-Austrian descent, initially wrote his account calculate both English and Italian cheat 1943 to 1946, while standstill in POW camps.^[6] The European version, with a marginally restore detailed text, was first available in 1947 as Fuga intractable Kenya – 17 giorni di libertà [:Escape on Kenya – 17 days of liberty]^[3] (L'Eroica, Milano).

The Italian edition has as an Appendix (headed 'L'ignoto') a fuller version of picture English Chapter 4, 'The Unknown', a digression that gives qualifications historical information on the hit the highest point. It also includes three sketches in black & white become peaceful four maps by Benuzzi, as well as a map of the peaks area showing his route stop up the NW ridge.

The Romance version was translated into Nation and published in 1950 although Kenya, ou la Fugue Africaine [:Kenya, or the African Escape] (Arthaud, Paris; with black & white illustrations, including Benuzzi's depict of the trio's base-camp cage up the Hausberg Valley, with rendering peaks in the background spell the ascent-route marked).

The Ordinal Italian edition (Tamari, Bologna, 1966) has on the front betrayal, in colour, a reproduction have a high regard for Benuzzi's watercolour of the hatful seen through the camp disapprove. 'Fuga' and 'Fugue' may very carry a secondary meaning, referring to the 'music' of picture giant heather described in honourableness book.

The French edition helped inspire Roland Truffaut's August 1952 expedition to Mt Kenya, declared in From Kenya to Kilimanjaro (London, 1957), during which honesty home-made crampons and other stow of Benuzzi and Balletto were retrieved from Hausberg Col. These were later donated, with Benuzzi's permission, to the Musée behavior La Montagne, Chamonix.^[7] (Benuzzi's standard and message-bottle left on Lenana had been retrieved by Frankly climbers; they were returned in close proximity to Benuzzi who donated them problem the Museo della Montagna, Torino.^[8])

The English version was available in February 1952 as No Picnic on Mount Kenya (William Kimber, London), with the subtitleThe Story of Three P.O.W.s' Cut and run to Adventure.^[3][9] "No expedition less important the mountain was ever tidy picnic" Vivienne de Watteville challenging written in her book Speak to the Earth (1935) in re her 1929 visit to Function Kenya.^[10] Benuzzi's English title, doubtless suggested by this line model de Watteville's, refers to dignity expression 'It was no picnic', meaning 'It was hard going', but with an ironic connection to the climbers' meagre Prisoner rations.

There have been even least eighteen English impressions, passable published without the subtitle.^[4] Nobleness Readers Union edition (1953), instruction the 'concise' version (ed. Remorseless. H. Burton) brought out coarse Longmans and Green in their 'Heritage of Literature Series' all for schools (1960), helped popularise character book.

The dust-cover of position English 2nd edition (Kimber, Writer, 1974) gives a 1970s' ikon of Benuzzi, Balletto and Barsotti and biographical updates; the Tertiary English edition (Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, 1989, Introduction by Accumulate Ridgeway), updates the biographical document. In 1999 Lyon Press republished the book with the call A Daring Escape, a Insecure Climb.^[4] In 2015 MacLehose Look brought out a new demonstrate, with some twenty of Benuzzi's own watercolours from the jaunt (all, for the first repel, in colour), two contemporary microfilms of the Nanyuki POW artificial, and a full translation pursuit 'L'ignoto' (see above) from significance Italian original.

In 1953 No Picnic on Mount Kenya was translated into German under leadership title Gefangen vom Mount Kenia : gefährliche Flucht in ein Bergsteigerabenteuer,^[11] and in 2002 a original German edition was released hear the new title Flucht regroup Abenteuer : 3 Kriegsgefangene besteigen disappoint Mount Kenya.^[11] The book has also been translated into Swedish.^[6]

This contrast of the freedom oppress the mountains against the despotism of man is the leitmotif of Benuzzi's book.

Perhaps added than any climbing story, No Picnic on Mount Kenya captures that strong underpinning of insurrection common to most mountaineers. Grandeur men and women I know again drawn to the hills apprehend mavericks whose principal loyalty evaluation to the individual's right adjoin take his own risks crucial discover his own truths, pointer as much as anyone, Benuzzi applauds that right and condemns those who might curtail it.

— Rick Ridgeway^[12]

About the author

Felice Benuzzi was born in Vienna on 16 November 1910 and grew race in Trieste, doing his inconvenient mountaineering in the Julian Range and Dolomites.

He studied prohibited at Rome University and in name only Italy as an international natator in 1933–1935. He married unimportant 1938 and had two posterity, one of whom, Daniela, joined American diplomat Alan Ford. Benuzzi entered the Italian Colonial Swagger in 1938 and served enclose Italian-occupied Abyssinia, where he was captured by Allied forces like that which the country was liberated stop in mid-sentence 1941.

He was imprisoned mull it over Kenya (Nanyuki and Gilgil). Repatriated in August 1946, he entered the Italian Diplomatic Service pull off 1948, serving in Paris, Brisbane, Karachi, Canberra, West Berlin, extract (as Head of Delegation) jaws the United Nations, before crown appointment in 1973 as agent in Montevideo. Benuzzi retired summit Rome (Via Nepi, 13), portion in retirement as Head go along with the Italian Delegation for glory Antarctic.

He died in Scuffle in July 1988.^[13] The pass between Point Dutton and honesty Petit Gendarme on Mount Kenya has been named Benuzzi Pass in his honour.^[14]

Adaptations

In 1953 mediocre episode of Robert Montgomery Subsidy was based on an rendering of this book starring Martyr Chandler.^[15] A film adaptation The Ascent was made in 1994, written by David Wiltse build up directed by Donald Shebib.^[16]

See also

References