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Karen von Blixen-Finecke ( April 17 , 1885 – September 7 , 1962 ),'' neé'' '''Dinesen''', was a Danish author also known under her Pen Name '''Isak Dinesen'''. Blixen wrote works both in Danish and in English . She is best known, at least in English, for "Out of Africa", her account of living in Kenya , and for a film based on one of her stories, Babette's Feast . LIFE IN AFRICA The daughter of writer and army officer Wilhelm Dinesen, and Ingeborg Westenholz, (and sister of Thomas Dinesen ), she was born into an aristocratic Unitarian family in Rungsted , on the island of Zealand , in Denmark , and was schooled in art in Copenhagen , Paris , and Rome . She began publishing fiction in various Danish periodicals in 1905 under the Pseudonym '' Osceola ,'' the name of the Seminole Indian leader, possibly inspired by her father's connection with American Indians . From August 1872 to December 1873, Wilhelm Dinesen had lived among the Chippewa Indians, in Wisconsin , where he fathered a daughter, who was born after his return to Denmark. (Wilhelm Dinesen hanged himself in 1895 when Karen was ten, after being diagnosed with syphilis). In 1914 Karen Dinesen married her Swedish cousin, Baron Bror Von Blixen-Finecke , (from whom she may have contracted syphilis), and the couple moved to Kenya where they operated a Coffee plantation. As she later wrote, "Here at long last one was in a position not to give a damn for all conventions, here was a new kind of freedom which until then one had only found in dreams!" The Blixens separated, however, in 1921 and were divorced in 1925. During this time she met and fell in love with English big game hunter, Denys Finch Hatton , with whom she lived from 1926 to 1931, suffering two miscarriages. Finch Hatton's death in a plane crash in 1931, compounded by the failure of the coffee plantation (due partly to the world-wide Depression), forced her to abandon the project and leave Africa. LIFE AS A WRITER She returned to Denmark and began writing in earnest, publishing ''Seven Gothic Tales'' in English in 1934. She was awarded the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat in 1939. During World War II , when Denmark was occupied by the Nazis , Blixen started to write her only full-length novel, the introspective ''The Angelic Avengers'', which was published in 1944. The horrors experienced by the young heroines were interpreted as an allegory of Nazism. Her writing during most of the 1940s and 1950s consisted of tales in the storytelling tradition. The most famous is '' Babette's Feast '', about an old cook, who has not been able to show her true skills, until she has an opportunity at a celebration. The surprise ending takes the story into the realm of Fairy Tale s. ''An Immortal Story'', in which an elderly man tries to buy youth, was adapted onto the screen by Orson Welles in 1968. Though Danish, Blixen wrote her books in English and then translated her work into her native tongue. Her English had unusual beauty, great skill, and precision. (Blixen's later books usually appeared simultaneously in both Danish and English). She was widely respected by her contemporaries, such as Ernest Hemingway and Truman Capote. Throughout the 1950s Blixen's health deteriorated (in 1955 she had a third of her stomach removed due to an ulcer), and writing became impossible although she did do several radio broadcasts. Unable to eat, Blixen died in 1962 at Rungsted, her family's estate, at the age of 76, apparently of malnutrition. Much of her work was published postumously. "Karen," the suburb of Nairobi , where Blixen made her home and operated her coffee plantation, was named after her. It is there that there is a Karen Blixen Coffee House and Museum, set in her former home. WORKS
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