Karen Blixen

Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (née Karen Christenze Dinesen; 17 Apr. 1885-7 Sep.r 1962) was a Danish author, also known by the pen name Isak Dinesen, who wrote works in Danish, French and English. She also at times used the pen names Tania Blixen, Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel. Blixen is best known for Out of Africa, an account of her life while living in Kenya, and for one of her stories, Babette’s Feast, both of which have been adapted into Academy Award-winning motion pictures. She is also noted for her Seven Gothic Tales, particularly in Denmark. Blixen was considered several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born into a Unitarian aristocratic family in Rungsted in Denmark, she studied art in Copenhagen, Paris, and Rome. She began publishing fiction in various Danish periodicals in 1905 under the pseudonym Osceola. In 1914 she married her Swedish cousin, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke and the couple relocated to Kenya, where they operated a coffee plantation. They separated in 1921 and Karen remained in Kenya until 1931, when she returned to Denmark and began writing full-time. She published ‘Seven Gothic Tales’ in English in 1934 under her pen name Isak Dinesen to great critical acclaim. This was followed by her most famous book ‘Out of Africa’ which told her story of life in Kenya in 1937, firmly establishing Blixen as an author and earning her the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat (1939), Denmark’s highest accolade for women in the arts or academic life. 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’, which was published in 1944. During the 1940s and 1950s she wrote stories such as ‘Babette’s Feast’ and ‘An Immortal Story’. Throughout the 1950s Blixen’s health was deteriorating, and writing became impossible. She died at her family’s estate, Rungsted, at the age of 77 in 1962.