Karen Blixen
| Karen Blixen | |
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Blixen in 1957
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| Born | Karen Christenze Dinesen 17 April 1885 Rungsted, Denmark |
| Died | 7 September 1962 (aged 77) Rungsted, Denmark |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Notable works | Out of Africa, Seven Gothic Tales, Shadows on the Grass, Babette's Feast |
Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (Danish: [kʰɑːɑn ˈb̥leɡ̊sn̩]; née Karen Christenze Dinesen; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 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.
Karen Dinesen was born in the manor house of Rungstedlund, north of Copenhagen, the daughter of Ingeborg (née Westenholz; 1856–1939), whose grandfather, Andreas Nicolai Hansen (1798–1873), had been a successful Copenhagen merchant, and Wilhelm Dinesen (1845–1895), a writer and army officer from a family of Jutland landowners. The second oldest in a family of three sisters and two brothers, her younger brother, Thomas Dinesen, grew up to earn the Victoria Cross in the First World War. Her mother Ingeborg came from a wealthy Unitarian bourgeois merchant family, unlike her father who had an aristocratic background closely connected to the monarchy, the established church and conservative politics. Dinesen was known to her friends not as "Karen" but as "Tanne".
Dinesen's early years had been strongly influenced by her father Wilhelm Dinesen, thanks to his relaxed manner and his love of the outdoor life. He also wrote throughout his life and his memoir, Boganis Jagtbreve (Letters From the Hunt) became a minor classic in Danish literature. From August 1872 to December 1873, Wilhelm had lived among the Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin, where he fathered a daughter. On returning to Denmark, he suffered from syphilis which resulted in bouts of deep depression. After conceiving a child out of wedlock with his maid Anna Rasmussen, he was devastated by breaking his promise to his mother-in-law, 'Mama' Mary Lucinde Westenholz, to remain faithful to his wife Ingeborg. As a result, he hanged himself on 28 March 1895 when Karen was almost ten.
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