Karen Blixen

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Blixen in Kenya, 1918

Karen von Blixen-Finecke (April 17, 1885 – September 7, 1962), neé Dinesen, was a Danish author also known under her pen name Isak Dinesen. Blixen wrote works both in Danish and in English. She is best known, at least in English, for Out of Africa, her account of living in Kenya, and for a film based on one of her stories, Babette's Feast.

Contents

1 Life in Africa
2 Life as a writer
3 Rungstedlund
4 Works
5 See also
6 External links

Life in Africa

The daughter of writer and army officer Wilhelm Dinesen, and Ingeborg Westenholz, (and sister of Thomas Dinesen), she was born into an Unitarian bourgeois family in Rungsted, on the island of Zealand, in Denmark, and was schooled in art in Copenhagen, Paris, and Rome.

She began publishing fiction in various Danish periodicals in 1905 under the pseudonym Osceola, the name of the Seminole Indian leader, possibly inspired by her father's connection with American Indians. From August 1872 to December 1873, Wilhelm Dinesen had lived among the Chippewa Indians, in Wisconsin, where he fathered a daughter, who was born after his return to Denmark. (Wilhelm Dinesen hanged himself in 1895 when Karen was ten, and the reason known to be because he was diagnosed with syphilis).

In 1914 Karen Dinesen married her Swedish cousin, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, (from whom she may have contracted syphilis), and the couple moved to Kenya where they operated a coffee plantation. As she later wrote, "Here at long last one was in a position not to give a damn for all conventions, here was a new kind of freedom which until then one had only found in dreams!" The Blixens separated, however, in 1921 and were divorced in 1925.

During this time she met and fell in love with English big game hunter, Denys Finch Hatton, with whom she lived from 1926 to 1931, suffering two miscarriages. Finch Hatton's death in a plane crash in 1931, compounded by the failure of the coffee plantation (due partly to the world-wide Depression), forced her to abandon the project and leave Africa.

Life as a writer

She returned to Denmark and began writing in earnest. Her first book, Seven Gothic Tales was published, under the pseudonym of ‘Isak Dinesen’, in US in 1934. This first book, highly enigmatic and metaphoric than 'Gothic', won great recognition, and further publication of the book in UK and Denmark followed. Her second book, now the best known among her other ones, was Out of Africa published in 1937, and the success established a firm reputation for her as an author. She was awarded the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat in 1939.

During World War II, when Denmark was occupied by the Nazis, Blixen started to write her only full-length novel, the introspective The Angelic Avengers, under another pseudonym 'Pierre Andrezel', which was published in 1944. The horrors experienced by the young heroines were interpreted as an allegory of Nazism.

Her writing during most of the 1940s and 1950s consisted of tales in the storytelling tradition. The most famous is Babette's Feast, about an old cook, who has not been able to show her true skills, until she has an opportunity at a celebration. The surprise ending takes the story into the realm of fairy tales. An Immortal Story, in which an elderly man tries to buy youth, was adapted onto the screen by Orson Welles in 1968.

Her 'tales' take not only the traditional style of storytelling, but also (most of them) actually take place against the periodical background of 19th century or even before. For the reason of this deliberate 'old-fashioned' taste, Blixen mentioned in several interviews that she wanted to express the spirit that does not exist in modern time any longer; sense of destiny and courage. Indeed, many of her ideas, eloquently yet mysteriously expressed in her stories, can be traced back to those of the Romanticism. For those who want to understand of Blixen’s concept of art of story, ‘Cardinal’s First Tale’ from her fifth book ‘Last Tales’ would probably make the most direct reference in author’s own words.

Though Danish, Blixen wrote her books in English and then translated her work into her native tongue. Her English had unusual beauty, great skill, and precision. (Blixen's later books usually appeared simultaneously in both Danish and English). As an author, she kept her public image as a charismatic, mysterious, old ‘Baroness’ with insightful third eye (which is, again, in classical tradition of a storyteller), and established herself as, if not of the main stream, an inspiring figure in Danish culture. She was widely respected by her contemporaries, such as Ernest Hemingway and Truman Capote, and during her tour to US in 1959, the list of writers who paid visit includes Arthur Miller, E.E. Cummings and Pearl Buck. Blixen was nominated for Nobel Prize twice in 1954 and 1957.

Throughout the 1950s Blixen's health deteriorated (in 1955 she had a third of her stomach removed due to an ulcer), and writing became impossible although she did do several radio broadcasts. Unable to eat, Blixen died in 1962 at Rungsted, her family's estate, at the age of 76, apparently of malnutrition. Some of her works, including tales previously removed from earlier collections and essays she wrote for various occasions, were published posthumously.

Karen, the suburb of Nairobi, where Blixen made her home and operated her coffee plantation, was named after her. It is there that there is a Karen Blixen Coffee House and Museum, set in her former home.

Rungstedlund

Karen Blixen lived most of her life at the family estate Rungstedlund, which was acquired by her father 1879. The property is located in Rungsted, 13 miles north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The oldest parts of the estate date back to 1680 and has been operated as an inn and as a farm. Most of Blixen's writing took place in Ewald's Room, named after author Johannes Ewald. The property is managed by the Rungstedlund Foundation, founded by Blixen and her siblings. The property opened to the public as a museum in 1991.

Works

The Hermits (1907, published in a Danish journal under the name Osceola)
The Ploughman (1907, published in a Danish journal under the name Osceola)
The de Cats Family (1909, published in Tilskueren)
The Revenge of Truth (1926, published in Denmark)
Seven Gothic Tales (1934 in USA, 1935 in Denmark)
Out of Africa (1937 in Denmark and England, 1938 in USA)
Winter's Tales (1942)
The Angelic Avengers (1947)
Last Tales (1957)
Anecdotes of Destiny (1958)
Shadows on the Grass (1960 in England and Denmark, 1961 in USA)
Ehrengard (posthumous 1963, USA)
Carnival: Entertainments and Posthumous Tales (posthumous 1977, USA)
Daguerreotypes and Other Essays (posthumous 1979, USA)
On Modern Marriage and Other Observations (posthumous 1986, USA)
Letters from Africa, 1914 – 1931 (posthumous 1981, USA)
Karen Blixen i Danmark: Breve 1931 – 1962 (posthumous 1996, Denmark)

External links