Tania Blixen
| Karen Blixen | |
|---|---|
Blixen in 1957
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| Born | Karen Christenze Dinesen 17 April 1885 Rungsted, Zealand, Denmark |
| Died | 7 September 1962 (aged 77) Rungsted, Zealand, Denmark |
| Pen name | Isak Dinesen, Tania Blixen |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English, Danish |
| Notable works | Out of Africa, Seven Gothic Tales, Shadows on the Grass, Babette's Feast |
Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (née Dinesen; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962) was a Danish author who wrote works in Danish and English. She is best known under her pen names Isak Dinesen, used in English-speaking countries, and Tania Blixen, used in German-speaking countries. She also published works using the aliases 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, particularly in Denmark, for her Seven Gothic Tales.
Blixen was considered several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Karen Dinesen was born in the manor house of Rungstedlund, north of Copenhagen. Her father, Wilhelm Dinesen (1845–1895), was a writer and army officer from a family of Jutland landowners closely connected to the monarchy, the established church and conservative politics.. Her mother, Ingeborg Westenholz (1856–1939), came from a wealthy Unitarian bourgeois merchant family. Karen Dinesen was 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. Dinesen was known to her friends as "Tanne".
Dinesen's early years were strongly influenced by her father's 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 to remain faithful to his wife. He hanged himself on 28 March 1895 when Karen was almost ten.
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