Karen Dinesen, 1914
photo credit: Blixen Museum
Out of Africa
published in 1937
Karen went to the Royal Academy of Art, Copenhagen, then spent her time studying in Paris, London, Rome and Switzerland. The following year she was accepted by the newly established women’s school at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later as a writer, she wrote eloquently in both Danish and English, publishing her short stories in various Danish periodicals in 1905!
In 1914 in Mombasa on the Eastern African coast, Dinesen married her Swedish cousin, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, giving her the title Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke. The young couple operated a coffee plantation gifted by their two families, and life for them was initially blissful. But the passionate ideals that the couple began with in Africa changed into challenging hardships. They had formed a company just as WW1 started, when the German-British fighting in British East Africa created a shortage of workers and supplies.
Gregarious Bror was frequently away on safari, yet it was during this first year of marriage that Karen contracted syphilis from the unfaithful Bror. Back then syphilis was treated with arsenic and mercury, treatments that contributed to her declining health over the years. The couple separated in 1921 and were divorced in 1925, with Karen being left to run the problematic coffee plantation. Bror was dismissed from his position in the Karen Coffee Co, but running the financially troubled farm alone was a daunting task for Karen.
While still in Africa, Karen fell in love with English big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, with whom she lived from 1926-31. They never married because of Karen’s health issues, and after several miscarriages, she was sterile. Worse, their relationship suddenly ended when Finch Hatton’s plane crashed in 1931. This tragedy, compounded by the failure of the coffee plantation during the Great Depression, damaged Dinesen's health and finances. She was forced to sell the Karen Coffee Co. to a residential developer and had to abandon her beloved farm in 1931. In saying goodbye to Africa, she knew she’d never return again.
After returning to Denmark in 1931, Blixen completely immersed herself in writing. Originally written in Africa, Seven Gothic Tales (1934) was published in English under the name Isak Dinesen. Then a Danish version followed. Gothic Tales was a masterpiece when it was first published in U.S and Britain, but failed to be celebrated in Denmark.
Blixen’s second and best known memoir was enormously successful which established her esteemed reputation. Out of Africa 1937 was a semi-autobiographical book in which she told of her Kenyan years. But she didn’t share the sordid details of her marriage and her affair with the English hunter. This book vividly described pioneering a coffee farm, and the Somali and the Masai tribes in Kenya.
When the Nazis occupied Denmark in WW2, Blixen started to write Winter's Tales (1942) which was smuggled out of the occupied country through Sweden. When the U.S joined the war, a pocketbook edition was given to soldiers fighting in the war. Then she wrote The Angelic Avengers (1944), her only full-length novel, one that alluded to Nazis horror.
Her writing during the 1950s consisted of storytelling that she began in Africa. The most famous was Babette's Feast (1950), looking at an old cook who was not able to show her true skills until she got a chance at a celebration. An Immortal Story (1958), in which an elderly man tried to buy youth, was adapted onto the screen in 1968 by Orson Welles.
Blixen suffered permanent ill health eg loss of leg sensation that ?was due to use of arsenic as a tonic in Africa. She also suffered from panic attacks, describing it as walking in a nightmare. Her health continued to deteriorate into the 1950s; in 1955 she had her stomach reduced due to an ulcer and writing became impossible. Whatever the truth about her diagnoses, the stigma attached to this illness suited the Baroness’ purpose in cultivating a mysterious persona for herself. She died in 1962 at 77.
Karen Blixen received the 1950 Danish Ingenuity and Art Award. She was nominated for the Literature Nobel Prize twice, (1954, 1957); she was also shortlisted for 1962 Nobel Prize but owing to her sudden death, became ineligible.
In 1985 a film based on her autobiography, Out of Africa, opened and won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Blixen lived at the family estate Rungstedlund, near Copenhagen. This old estate had been operated both as an inn and a farm, then it opened to the public as a Museum in 1991.
In 1914 in Mombasa on the Eastern African coast, Dinesen married her Swedish cousin, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, giving her the title Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke. The young couple operated a coffee plantation gifted by their two families, and life for them was initially blissful. But the passionate ideals that the couple began with in Africa changed into challenging hardships. They had formed a company just as WW1 started, when the German-British fighting in British East Africa created a shortage of workers and supplies.
Gregarious Bror was frequently away on safari, yet it was during this first year of marriage that Karen contracted syphilis from the unfaithful Bror. Back then syphilis was treated with arsenic and mercury, treatments that contributed to her declining health over the years. The couple separated in 1921 and were divorced in 1925, with Karen being left to run the problematic coffee plantation. Bror was dismissed from his position in the Karen Coffee Co, but running the financially troubled farm alone was a daunting task for Karen.
While still in Africa, Karen fell in love with English big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, with whom she lived from 1926-31. They never married because of Karen’s health issues, and after several miscarriages, she was sterile. Worse, their relationship suddenly ended when Finch Hatton’s plane crashed in 1931. This tragedy, compounded by the failure of the coffee plantation during the Great Depression, damaged Dinesen's health and finances. She was forced to sell the Karen Coffee Co. to a residential developer and had to abandon her beloved farm in 1931. In saying goodbye to Africa, she knew she’d never return again.
After returning to Denmark in 1931, Blixen completely immersed herself in writing. Originally written in Africa, Seven Gothic Tales (1934) was published in English under the name Isak Dinesen. Then a Danish version followed. Gothic Tales was a masterpiece when it was first published in U.S and Britain, but failed to be celebrated in Denmark.
Blixen’s second and best known memoir was enormously successful which established her esteemed reputation. Out of Africa 1937 was a semi-autobiographical book in which she told of her Kenyan years. But she didn’t share the sordid details of her marriage and her affair with the English hunter. This book vividly described pioneering a coffee farm, and the Somali and the Masai tribes in Kenya.
When the Nazis occupied Denmark in WW2, Blixen started to write Winter's Tales (1942) which was smuggled out of the occupied country through Sweden. When the U.S joined the war, a pocketbook edition was given to soldiers fighting in the war. Then she wrote The Angelic Avengers (1944), her only full-length novel, one that alluded to Nazis horror.
Her writing during the 1950s consisted of storytelling that she began in Africa. The most famous was Babette's Feast (1950), looking at an old cook who was not able to show her true skills until she got a chance at a celebration. An Immortal Story (1958), in which an elderly man tried to buy youth, was adapted onto the screen in 1968 by Orson Welles.
Blixen suffered permanent ill health eg loss of leg sensation that ?was due to use of arsenic as a tonic in Africa. She also suffered from panic attacks, describing it as walking in a nightmare. Her health continued to deteriorate into the 1950s; in 1955 she had her stomach reduced due to an ulcer and writing became impossible. Whatever the truth about her diagnoses, the stigma attached to this illness suited the Baroness’ purpose in cultivating a mysterious persona for herself. She died in 1962 at 77.
Karen Blixen received the 1950 Danish Ingenuity and Art Award. She was nominated for the Literature Nobel Prize twice, (1954, 1957); she was also shortlisted for 1962 Nobel Prize but owing to her sudden death, became ineligible.
In 1985 a film based on her autobiography, Out of Africa, opened and won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Blixen lived at the family estate Rungstedlund, near Copenhagen. This old estate had been operated both as an inn and a farm, then it opened to the public as a Museum in 1991.
Museum of Rungstedlund,
near Copenhagen.
Her old Kenyan home Bogani House was home to various families until it was bought by the Danish government in 1964 and given to the Kenyans to mark Independence. The National Museums of Kenya eventually acquired the house and furniture that Blixen had sold decades before. The Museum was opened in 1986, with farm tools including a contemporary tractor, wagons, ploughs and an original coffee processing factory equipment. Tours are offered each day by multilingual guides, and the museum shop has a wide selection of posters and postcards, films and books.
Karen, the Nairobi suburb where Blixen had lived and operated her Kenyan coffee plantation, has a Karen Blixen Coffee House & Museum!
Karen, the Nairobi suburb where Blixen had lived and operated her Kenyan coffee plantation, has a Karen Blixen Coffee House & Museum!
Blixen Museum in Kenya
was opened in 1986