New York, Dutton, 1953, 2nd printing. 239 pp, mapped end papers. Red cloth hardcover with an unchipped dust jacket. Fine condition.
This was the first climbing book I read. In 1953 I was 9 years old, and my older brother brought a copy home from the library, and I read it. In a library it is often shelved with books on escapes and evasions during WW2, which had just ended. I think that's how he found it. It is a book I enjoy reading, and have many times. But now the book is 71 years old, and it is getting hard to find flawless copies. This the best copy we have gotten over the last few years.
Many people consider this one of the greatest of all climbing stories. Benuzzi, an Italian prisoner during WWII, escaped from a POW camp to climb Mt. Kenya! In 1943, Felice Benuzzi and two Italian compatriots escaped from a British POW camp in equatorial East Africa with only one goal in mind - to climb the dangerous seventeen-thousand-foot Mount Kenya. Leaving a written 'parole' declaring they would return in two weeks, Benuzzi and two companions nearly scaled Mount Kenya on stolen rations, and improvised climbing equipment. Once done, they broke back into their camp to surrender! An extraordinary tale of war and mountaineering.
