Eva Dickson

Eva Dickson, 1933

Eva Amalia Maria Dickson (born March 8, 1905 in Steninger Castle , Sigtuna , Sweden ; † March 1938 in Baghdad , Iraq ), née Lindström , was a Swedish explorer, rally driver, aviator and travel writer. She was the first woman to cross the Sahara desert by car. She was perhaps the first female rally driver in Sweden (1925) and the third Swedish female pilot (1932).

Career

Eva Dickson was the daughter of the wealthy Albert Lindström (1859-1939), who ran stud farms for horse breeding, and his wife Hulda Maria née Broman (1874-1928). In 1925 she married rally driver Olof Dickson , the great-grandson of James Dickson, but they divorced in 1932 because he disapproved of her travels. Her travels attracted a lot of attention and she published several guidebooks and descriptions of her experiences. She financed her travels by betting with various people in affluent society.

In 1932 she met Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke - the former husband of Karen Blixen , the author of Out of Africa. They met in Kenya and soon became lovers. After meeting Blixen in 1932, she took a bet and drove from Nairobi to Stockholm by car in 1932 , becoming the first woman to cross the Sahara by car.

In 1934 she was back in Kenya with Bror Blixen, where she took part in various scientific expeditions. The following year both traveled to Ethiopia , where she reported on the Abyssinia crisis as a war correspondent for the Swedish newspaper The Weekly Journal . They left Ethiopia on mules on a 2,000-kilometer journey back to Kenya .

Eva Dickson and Sven Hedin

In 1936 the couple married in New York City and spent their honeymoon with friends Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn on a tour of Cuba and the Bahamas . The trip ended with the couple visiting Hemingway in his hometown of Key West .

On June 3, 1937, she started a drive from Stockholm to Beijing on the Silk Road . Becoming the first person to ride the Silk Road had long been her big dream, and something she wanted to do before settling in Kenya with Bror. The journey took her unaccompanied through Germany , Poland , Romania , Turkey , Syria and Iran . After reaching Afghanistan , the detour via India was recommended as her planned route was considered too dangerous for a single woman. When she arrived in Calcutta , she fell ill and was treated with arsenic in a hospital, which made her condition worse.

During her stay in Calcutta , she realized she was running out of money. She also learned the news of the Second Sino-Japanese War and realized that her planned route to China was now impossible and she had to abandon her plans to reach Beijing . Although she was weak after her hospital stay, she decided to return to Europe. By the time she reached Baghdad , Iraq , in March 1938 , her journey had already taken nine months. After having dinner with friends outside Baghdad, she drove back to her hotel, but lost control of the car in a steep turn. She died instantly. Her husband, Bror von Blixen , was immediately informed of her death by telegram, but he was on a safari and did not receive the telegram until he returned to Nairobi on July 28, 1938 . At that time, her body had already been transferred to Stockholm , where she was buried on April 22, 1938 in the North Cemetery.

Web links

Commons : Eva Dickson  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Emma Severinsson: Eva Amalia Maria Dickson. In: Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (Biographical Lexicon of Swedish Women). skbl.se, March 8, 2018, accessed March 10, 2020 (English, Swedish). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Wordsandart: words & art: Eva Dickson, en aventyrare. In: words & art. January 20, 2012, accessed March 8, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Aventyrars Eva Dickson | Popular Historia. February 20, 2014, accessed March 8, 2020 .