also wrote as ISAK DINESEN and PIERRE ANDRÉZEL;
in full Karen Christence Dinesen, Baroness Blixen-Finecke

Danish writer whose stories incorporate the themes of eros, supernaturalism and dreams.

Karen Blixen was born in Rungsted, Denmark. She studied in Denmark, England, Switzerland, Italy, and France. In 1914 she married her cousin Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, and went with him to Kenya, where they directed coffee plantation. They were divorced in 1921, and in 1931 she returned to Denmark, after fruitless stuggles with mismanagement, drought, and the falling price of coffee.

During WW II, when Denmark was occupied by the Nazis, Blixen started to write her only full lenght novel GENGÆLDELSENS VEJE, which was published in 1944 under the pseudonym Pierre Andrézel. In the 1950s her health was deterioiting, and writing became impossible. However, Blixen appeared as a lecturer in radio and made also one record. Her name was mentioned also several times in the context of Nobel Prize awards. In 1959 she made a lecture tour in the United States which gained huge success.

Blixen's years in Kenya are depicted in OUT OF AFRICA - "I had a farm in Africa..." The book was adapted into Oscar-winning film in 1985, directed by Sydney Pollack. - Dinesen wrote her books in English and then rewrote them in Danish. Her later books usually appeared simultaneously in both languages.

NOTE: In her late years, Blixen dressed some times as commedia dell'arte character Pierrot - also her works with multi-voice narrations presenting material in a complex, dancelike pattern, reflected the influence of this theatre tradition from the 16th-century. - Blixen's story Tempest from Anecdotes of Destiny is based on William Shakespeare's play.

Selected works:

• SEVEN GOTHIC TALES - Syv fantastiske fortællinger, 1934
• OUT OF AFRICA - Den afrikanske farm, 1937  - film 1985, dir. by Sydney Pollack,
• WINTER'S TALES - Vintereventyr, 1942
• GENGÆLDELSENS VEJE, 1944 (under name Pierre Andrézel) - The Angelic Avengers
• BABETTES GÆSTEBUD, 1952
• KARDINALENS TREDIE HISTORIE, 1952
• EN BÅLTALE, 1953
• SPØ

GELSESHESTERNE, 1955
• LAST TALES - Sidste fortællinger, 1957 - includes chapters from unfinished novel Albondocani
• ANECDOTES OF DESTINY, 1958
• SKYGGER PÅ GRÆSET, 1960
• OSCEOLA, 1962
• EHRENGARD, 1963
• EFTERLADTE FORTÆLINGER, 1975
• CARNIVAL: ENTERTAINMENTS AND POSTHUMOUS TALES, 1977
• DAGUERREOTYPES, AND OTHER ESSAYS, 1979
• LETTERS FROM AFRICA, 1914-31, 1981

Compiled by Kuusankoski Public Library, Finland (© 1997) and René Märtin (© 1998-2001).