True at First Light and Under Kilimanjaro: The African Book in Two Parts

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Hemingway's second safari of 1953-1954 provided the basis for a manuscript Hemingway called the African Book. Unfinished at the time of his death, this book would be posthumously published: first as shorter excerpts in Sports Illustrated (1971), and later in two editions: True at First Light, an abridged version edited by Patrick Hemingway (1999) and Under Kilimanjaro, a comprehensive text edited by Robert W. Lewis and Robert E. Fleming (2005). Neither book has superseded the other as the definitive African Book treatment, and their significant differences illuminate one another. This article considers differences between the texts, including differences in genre, in portrayal of the "tribalization" of the author, and in Hemingway's attitude toward critical opinion.