ANCIENT& not so ancient WISDOM
offering a weekly positive perspective

December 4, 2003

Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.

- Karen Blixen, aka Isak Dinesen (1885-1962)

Karen Blixen, aristocrat, wife, traveler, entrepreneur, and Danish writer, who wrote as Isak Dinesen, Pierre Andrezel, Tania Blixen, Osceola, and other pseudonyms was born at the family estate, Rungstedlund, on the Oresund north of Copenhagen. Her 1937 work, Out of Africa, was made into a movie in 1985. Her father, Wilhelm Dinesen, was a soldier, landowner, sportsman, writer of Letters from the Hunt, and Danish parliamentarian. Her mother, Ingeborg Westenholz Dinesen, was the daughter of a wealthy ship owner, activist, Unitarian, and the first woman elected to the Rungstedlund parish council. Her father committed suicide when she was 10-years-old. He had syphilis and it is suspected that he feared the madness brought
on by the disease.

In the years that followed, Karen studied in arts and language in Switzerland and Copenhagen. In 1907, her first stories were published, “The Hermits” and “the Ploughman. At age 24, she fell in love with Baron Hans von Blixen-Finecke, son of her father’s cousin. She becomes engaged in December 1912 to Baron Bror von Blizen-Finecke, Hans’ twin bother. They married two years later and began a coffee farm of 1500 acres near Nairobi.

In 1915, Karen returned to Denmark with syphilis contracted from her husband. It was treated with the best methods available at that time: intravenous arsenic injections, high temperature baths to create fevers, and surgery.  She returned to Africa in 1916, with money provided by her relatives to purchase a second farm for the establishment of the 9,000 acres Karen Coffee Corporation. The average farm in the area was 100,000 acres.

Karen separated from Bror in 1921 and took over full management of the coffee farm. She had a miscarriage from her relationship with Denys Finch Hatton, an English hunter and pilot in 1922. The coffee factory on the farm burned to the ground in 1923. Her divorce to Bror was finalized in 1925. Denys was unwilling to marry her. “The Revenge of Truth” was published in 1926.  She began work on Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, and in letters to her family she told how she was attracted to silence about Africa and its people that contrasted with Europe.

In 1928, Karen entertained the Prince of Wales at the farm and Denys invited Bror to help him with the prince’s safari. Karen still idealized Bror and the kind things he did for her when she was ill. Karen felt he was a goodhearted person that shared his affections in every possible way.

Karen took her first ride in an airplane with Deny in 1930 and she sold her farm, which was negatively affected by the worldwide depression.  In April of 1931, Deny was killed in a plane crash, and Karen Blixen returned to Denmark at age 46.

In 1934, Seven Gothic Tales was published, followed by Out of Africa and Winter’s Tales. Though Danish, Blixen wrote her books in English and then translated her work into her native tongue. Critics in England and the Unites States proclaimed the short story collection Seven Gothic Tales, a masterpiece, but in Denmark the critics considered her stories too exotic and not fitting into any literary movement.

In 1954, she was nominated to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Ernest Hemingway, the winner, said that she was more deserving of the award. In 1957, she was overlooked again, and the award was given to Albert Camus.

She was greatly admired and had many friends, and she a fascinating person in her own time. Karen used her imagination to keep her very emotional character in a state of balance. She loved to be playful and made great efforts to kept people interested in life. She drew her writing inspiration from the Bible, the Arabian Nights,  Homer, the Icelandic sagas, and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, and from her own life.

She was full of life until the end. She died on September 7, 1962 at Rungstedlund.

Wishing you great and continued success!

Sincerely,