Karen Christentze Dinesen, later Karen von Blixen-Finecke (1885 – 1962), was a Danish writer, best known for The African Farm .
First attempts at writing
Daughter of Ingeborg Westenholz and the writer Wilhelm Dinesen, Karen Christentze Dinesen was born on April 17, 1885 in the remains in Rungstedlund, near Copenhagen in Denmark. Karen, whose father committed suicide when she was nine, studied in Copenhagen and then studied art in Paris and Rome. She turns more particularly to painting and writing.
In 1907, Karen published her first story, Les Reclus , followed by a few others, but these writings met with little success and she stopped writing. In 1909, she went through a long period of despair following an unrequited love. In 1912, she became engaged to Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, who was the twin brother of her former love. Thanks to a substantial financial contribution from Karen's family, the two fiancés bought a coffee plantation in what is now Kenya, of which Bror became director.
The African Farm
On January 14, 1914, Karen married Bror in Mombasa in what is now Kenya. Shortly after, discovering that her husband had transmitted syphilis to her, Karen had to leave for treatment in Denmark before returning to the plantation. The management of her husband was disastrous and the spouses gradually moved away, until their divorce in 1925. In 1918, Karen met Denys Finch Hatton, an English pilot, who became her great love but who died in a plane crash in May 1931.
The plantation's financial situation deteriorated and, in July 1931, Karen Blixen had to sell the farm, leave Africa and return to her Rungstedlund estate. Ruined, desperate and experiencing her stay in Africa as a failure, she begins to write. In 1934, she published, under a pseudonym, her Seven Gothic Tales which are well received by the public. In 1937, she published The African Farm then Winter Tales in 1942.
After the war, she welcomed a literary and intellectual circle to her domain, establishing herself as a major artistic figure in Denmark. In 1955, she had to undergo surgery which left her weakened. In her last years, while continuing to publish, she traveled to the United States and France. Karen Blixen died at her home in Rungstedlund on September 7, 1962.