Karen Blixen

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Karen Blixen, 1957
Karen Blixen, 1959

Karen Blixen , actually Karen Christence von Blixen-Finecke , née Dinesen , (born April 17, 1885 in Rungstedlund near Copenhagen ; † September 7, 1962 there ) was a Danish writer and a coffee farmer in Kenya for 17 years . Her pseudonym on the German book market is mostly Tania Blixen . Her English-language books mostly appeared under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen . Karen Blixen was portrayed in the film Out of Africa . Her work is shaped by the longing for an aristocratic world order.

Life

Childhood and youth

Rungstedlund, the birthplace and home of Karen Blixen in Denmark. Today the Karen Blixen Museum is located there .

Karen Christence Dinesen was born as the second and middle daughter into a Unitarian family who had lived in Rungstedlund near Copenhagen by the harbor, on the east coast of Zealand , on Öresund in Denmark , since 1879, when the estate was bought . The family used to call Karen Dinesen by her disliked nickname “Fir,” which is the child-language expression of the name Karen. Her father was the officer, writer and politician Wilhelm Dinesen ; her mother was Ingeborg Westenholz . She grew up with four other siblings in a well-protected family home: Inger Benedicte (Ea), Ellen Alvilde (Elle), Thomas Fasti and Anders Runsti. Her younger brother Thomas Dinesen later visited and supported her in Africa. These years were mainly characterized by a rigid, middle-class upbringing. The three girls developed their artistic talent, Karen Dinesen linguistically and pictorially, the two sisters musically. Karen Dinesen slowly distanced herself from the church and developed resistance to the strictly religious way of life of her parents, especially her mother. The father Wilhelm Dinesen had traveled to the USA in Wisconsin in August 1872 and lived in the community of the indigenous Indian people of the Chippewa until December 1873 . After successfully integrating into the ethnic group, he became a father here for the first time. But before the birth of this daughter he traveled back to Denmark. In 1895 the father, who was very close to Karen Dinesen, committed suicide , which was a severe blow to the ten year old child. Wilhelm Dinesen hanged himself after being diagnosed with syphilis .

Karen attended art schools in Copenhagen ( Miss Sode's Art School and the Royal Danish Academy of Art ), Paris and Rome . As a child she had frequent contact with her future Swedish husband, Bror von Blixen-Finecke . He was the son of Baron Frederik von Blixen-Finecke and his wife Clara von Blixen-Finecke and the twin brother of Hans von Blixen-Finecke (1886-1917). Clara was the sister of the largest Danish landowner, Count Mogens Frijs , actually Mogens Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs from Frijsenborg Castle . Mogens' mother, in turn, was Wilhelm Dinesen's maternal aunt. So Bror's mother and Karen's father were cousins.

Study and writing

After finishing school, she began studying painting at the Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen in 1903 and began to write. In 1907, a year after completing her studies, she published a few short stories under the pseudonym Osceola , after a then largely unknown representative of the Seminoles . It is believed that Karen was inspired by her well-traveled father Wilhelm Dinesen for this name. But Osceola wasn't her only pseudonym. Karen Blixen had many different pseudonyms and almost seemed to live in them (other pseudonyms: see below).

In 1909 she fell in love with the Swedish baron Hans von Blixen-Finecke , a son of her father's cousin. This love went unrequited. Instead, on December 23, 1912, Karen got engaged to Hans' brother, her half-cousin Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, at Näsbyholm Castle in Sweden, which has belonged to the Blixen family from 1756 until today. The two decided to emigrate to Kenya together and run a dairy farm near Nairobi, financed by Karen's middle-class family. Karen fled the confines of her bourgeois parental home with it in order to establish an existence with her husband outside Denmark.

With Bror in Kenya

Karen Blixen's Farm, now the Karen Blixen Museum
Karen Blixen, 1913

Bror drove ahead to Kenya and in 1913 bought the 800 hectare Mbagathi farm at the foot of the Ngong Mountains south of Nairobi at around 2000 meters above sea level in what is now Karen (a suburb of Nairobi , then British East Africa ) . The farm was largely financed with funds from the Dinesen family, because Bror was broke. The old Mbagathi farmhouse was designed by Denys Finch Hatton .

In December 1913, Karen came by ship from Naples to Mombasa , where Bror picked her up and they married on January 14, 1914. On the ship, Karen had met the German Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , who later became the commander of the Imperial Protection Force in German East Africa , and had agreed with him to deliver several horses, a plan that followed the outbreak of World War I on August 5, 1914 crossed. Lettow-Vorbeck was her best man in Mombasa on January 14, 1914, before traveling on to the German colony by ship. This later contributed to British settlers' suspicion that Karen Blixen was pro-German.

When Karen and Bror reached the new farm, she found that her husband had bought a coffee farm rather than a milk farm, the growing areas of which were unusually high. At that time it was considered impossible to grow coffee at an altitude of around 1700 m. But Karen tried the impossible. Later she would describe this time and begin the novel Africa, dark alluring world (1937) with the words "I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Mountains ..." - this is how the film Out of Africa begins . Karen Blixen also used the time of her years in Kenya to repeatedly paint pictures, especially portraits of her subordinates from the Kikuyu ethnic group .

Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, although the official head of the farm, showed no great interest in agriculture , but rather devoted himself to big game hunts and the safaris that go with them. Similar to his "successor" Denys Finch Hatton , Karen describes Bror as an extremely charming, funny and lovable man. In her letters to the family she reported illnesses and emphasized the baron's qualities as a devoted nurse and good masseur.

The guerrilla war during the First World War along the border with Tanganyika deprived the farms of labor and supplies. Karen made several supply trips to the troops in the border area.

Between 1915 and 1918 Kenya experienced a major dry spell. In 1917 the British stopped importing coffee and diseases broke out among the cattle herds. Many farms in Kenya suffered under these extreme conditions during this period - many had only just been established.

Bror was completely carefree with the money - mostly that of his wife or her family. It is rumored that Bror believed that an invoice was paid when he signed it.

These characteristics also led to the fact that he was a classic "womanizer" ("woman hero") and a friend of prostitution . In 1915 he and Karen fell ill with syphilis . In Nairobi, Karen was treated with mercury ; In 1915 she left Kenya for the first time in order to be treated in Denmark with the arsenic arsphenamine newly discovered by Paul Ehrlich . Bror followed her. In Copenhagen she was hospitalized for three months; there it was possible to control the disease to such an extent that it was no longer contagious. However, Karen Blixen was to suffer from chronic pain for the rest of her life as a result of syphilis infection or heavy metal poisoning as a side effect of mercury therapy.

In 1916 both came back to Kenya. Once again they founded the Karen Coffee Corporation with the money from the Dinesens, enlarged Mbagathi to 2,200 hectares and bought a second - the same size - farm in the White Highlands . By Kenyan standards it was a relatively normal farm, as there were latifundia that were 100,000 hectares in size. Such large farms still exist in the Laikipia District today .

In 1917, the Blixens moved to the next house, "Mbogani", today's museum on the farm they had bought. Mbogani was built in 1912 by the Swede Åke Sjögren .

In 1985 Mbagathi (the first house), now a dairy farm and owned by Mama Ngina , filmed the scenes from Out of Africa , which are set in Karen Blixen's second house, Mbogani.

In 1919 the two went to Denmark and Sweden respectively. Bror returned to Kenya in March 1920. Before that, he wrote to Karen asking for the separation. Karen did not consent, but in 1921 they separated against Karen's will. Bror was fired as manager in 1921 by Aage Westenholz , Karen's uncle and chairman of the Karen Coffee Corporation. Karen lived on Rungstedlund with her mother for a year. She suffered from Spanish flu , blood poisoning and constant pain attacks.

The marriage ended in divorce in 1925.

Farm manager

In 1920 she returned to Kenya with her brother Thomas Dinesen (1892–1979), who was supposed to sort out the financial chaos of the farm. With the help of her brother, she courageously but unsuccessfully took over the management of the coffee farm. On March 2nd, 1922 Thomas Dinesen returned to Denmark. On November 3, 1924, Thomas Dinesen and mother Ingeborg came to visit for two months.

The operation of the farm was based on the work of so-called squatters . In addition, Blixen employed numerous "boys" in her house, young servants who were mostly still children. A number of European descent, Muslim and Indian employees in higher wage brackets completed the staffing of which they commanded.

In January 1925 the three drove back to Denmark. There Karen tried to establish contacts in order to be able to publish her works, among others with Georg Brandes , the leading Danish critic.

On February 1, 1926, Karen returned to her farm. Karen tried to overcome her crisis in long and intense letters to her brother. On January 23, 1927, her mother returned to Kenya and stayed on the farm for more than three months.

In 1929 her mother became seriously ill and Karen stayed in Rungstedlund from May 18 to December 25. She attended the Finch Hattons in England. Thomas Dinesen's book No Man's Land , Memories of the French Front in World War I, in which he participated, was published in Danish.

The relationship with Denys Finch Hatton

On April 15, 1918, Karen had met her future love, the British army officer and big game hunter Denys Finch Hatton , at the Muthaiga Club in Nairobi . After returning from Denmark in 1920, she developed an intense love affair with Denys. In 1923 the coffee factory burned down completely and Thomas returned to Denmark. Now she was completely on her own, because Bror was constantly on safari. From 1924, Denys began to stay with Karen in Mbogani when he returned to Nairobi. In 1924 she had a miscarriage from Denys. In January 1925, Bror and Karen were divorced and Karen returned to Denmark for a year.

After the divorce, Denys moved in with her in "Mbogani". In 1926, Karen Blixen was pregnant again. Denys had difficulty imagining becoming a father and taking responsibility. On May 21, 1926 he sent Karen a telegram from England regarding “Daniels” (the code word for a child): “ Reference your cable and my reply please do as you like about Daniel as I should welcome him if I could offer partnership but this is impossible STOP You will I know consider your mother's views Denys. “Karen had another miscarriage. 1927 was the most harmonious year in which Denys finally spent a lot of time with Karen after the death of his friend Berkeley Cole .

Karen Blixen ran an open house with a famous kitchen. On November 9, 1928, the then Prince of Wales dined on his safari in East Africa, of which Denys was the leader, with Karen, Denys, Bror and the pregnant Beryl Markham in Mbogani. The new Baroness Blixen (Bror had meanwhile married Cockie Birkbeck) complicated Karen's social situation in Kenya. The dinner with the prince, which Denys had arranged, was intended to strengthen Karen's position. On the other hand, Karen and Denys 'relationship was particularly strained by Denys' decision to take Bror on a safari with the prince. The relationship with Denys broke up in 1929.

In May 1931 Denys flew to his vacation home on the Mombasa coast, where he had also been with Karen. On the return flight he landed in Voi , today an important stop on the Nairobi – Mombasa route and in Tsavo East National Park . Together with his Somali helper Hamisi, he looked for elephants from the air. On May 14, 1931, he started again with Hamisi on a reconnaissance flight, which was to be his last. The engine failed and both were killed in the crash.

Finch Hatton's body was turned over to Karen Blixen despite the estrangement, and she buried him with his friends in the Ngong Hills , where he wanted to be buried and where she could look from her farmhouse.

Selling the farm

In 1931 Karen Blixen had to give up her plantation after 17 years of ineffectiveness and less under the pressure of the global economic crisis (or a fire on the farm). Your work in Kenya was over. However, she was able to ensure that “her” Kikuyu were not expelled, but rather resettled as a whole community in a nearby reserve.

She sold the farm to Remi Martin , a businessman from Nairobi who has nothing to do with the French cognac brand of similar name, Rémy Martin . Remi Martin parceled out their land and sold it to wealthy settlers who build large villas or small town farms there. To this day, the land around her farm, which bears her name " Karen ", has remained an elegant place to live in Nairobi.

Return to Denmark

Returning to Denmark to the family home in Rungstedlund (about 20 kilometers north of Copenhagen ) was not easy for Karen Blixen because she did not have a good relationship with her family. When she returned, she also had to submit to the family again and become dependent on them. At the family seat, which dates back to 1680, she wrote mostly in the "Ewalds-Zimmer", which was named after the author Johannes Ewald, who was admired by her and who lived there from 1773 to 1775 and some of his main works, including the autobiography Life and views .

Blixen's grave in Rungstedlund

In 1934 she published Seven Gothic Tales in English and won an award in 1939, the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat . Out of Africa was published in London in 1937 . During the Second World War , when the German army was occupying Denmark, she wrote her only great novel, The Angelic Avengers , which is interpreted as an allegory of the downfall of the Nazi regime. In the 1940s and 1950s she devoted herself entirely to storytelling in the tradition of storytellers. The best known of these stories from that time is Babette's Fest , which was filmed in 1987 and won an Oscar in 1988. Another of the stories, actually a fairy tale, An Immortal Story , in which an aging man tries to buy back his youth, was made into a film by Orson Welles in 1968 .

Karen Blixen (right) and Jurij Moskvitin (center) at a meeting with Igor Fyodorowitsch Stravinsky (left) in Copenhagen City Hall.

In the 1950s, her bad health made her unable to write, but she still spoke on various radio programs. Many of her works were published posthumously. She died on the family home at the age of 77.

Rungstedlund has been a museum since 1991 that is run by the "Rungstedlund Foundation" (established by the family).

Honors

The asteroid (3318) Blixen was named after her, and her portrait was featured on the series’s 50-crown banknote from 1997. In 1957 she was elected as an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

plant

characterization

Blixen's works include autobiographical reports from Africa, fantastic stories and novels . The publications were mostly made under the pseudonyms Tania Blixen , Isak Dinesen , Osceola , Peter Lawless , Pierre Andrézel or Nozdref's Cook .

During her stay in Kenya, Karen Blixen had gotten into the habit of writing in English instead of her native Danish. She kept it that way in Denmark too, first writing in English and then translating into Danish herself. Many of her books have been published in parallel in English and Danish. Her English was of great sophistication and beauty. The atmospheric density of their works was particularly praised. Their work was sincerely admired by Ernest Hemingway and Truman Capote .

Karen Blixen achieved her literary breakthrough with the Seven Fantastic Stories that appeared in 1934. She had actually planned and written a book with nine stories in the 1920s, which was to appear under the title Nine Tales by Nozdref's Cook . So she started writing the story Carnival in Danish and then finished it in English. Carnival did not appear in the Nine Tales , but for the first time in 1977 posthumously in English.

In 1954 it was rumored that Blixen would receive the Nobel Prize in Literature , which was then awarded to Ernest Hemingway . He then praised Blixen and said that she was actually more worthy of the price; but even without the price, she must always be counted among the “great women” of her century. In 1962, Blixen was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature together with u. a. Jean Anouilh , Lawrence Durrell , Robert Graves and John Steinbeck . Her death on September 7th prevented a possible award and the prize was awarded to Steinbeck.

Despite all expressed sympathy for the country and its people, Karen Blixen was accused by African authors of a racist view of the Africans. She put the African people in a row with antelopes and wild animals, that is, on the level of a "noble original state", and she has a feudal and Eurocentric attitude. Her choice of topics and narrative style resulted in Blixen's distance from the contemporary problems of Danish society, which led to a lifelong disappointment with the small number of her readers: Karen Blixen's “symbolizing and mythical narrative style was perceived as alien in the politicized, socially realistic literary climate of Denmark and was accordingly received with caution. “In several of her stories she reflects the difference between artist and audience.

Work selection

The following information is now largely complete. First of all, the international titles with the respective pseudonym and the articles contained therein as well as - if available - the Danish, English or German first edition are mentioned, in the case of the German also reprints. The second part lists works that were published posthumously in English or Danish, while the third part lists other German editions. The German titles are in alphabetical order, the others follow chronologically the year of first publication.

International

  • Osceola: Eneboerne ( The Hermits , in Danish magazine, Tilskueren , København, August 1907)
  • Osceola: Pløjeren (Danish, Der Pflüger , København: Gads danske Magasin , October 1907)
  • Osceola: Familien de Cats (Danish, The de Cats family , København: Tilskueren , January 1909); engl. in the anthology: Carnival. (see below: published posthumously)
  • Karen Blixen: Sandhedens hævn . En marionetkomedie. 39 sider. - København: Tilskueren , 1926.
English: Isak Dinesen: The Revenge of Truth (In: Donald Hannah: "Isak Dinesen: The Mask and the Reality", Putnam, London 1971. ISBN 0-370-00114-1 ).
Then 1985 Libretto by Jørgen Heiner for the opera of the same name by Ib Nørholm
Binding to Seven Gothic Tales by Rex Whistler (1934)
  • Isak Dinesen: Seven Gothic Tales (The Deluge at Norderney ; The Old Chevalier; The Monkey; The Roads Round Pisa; The Supper at Elsinore; The Dreamers; The Poet). - New York: Harrison Smith and Robert Haas; London: Putnam, 1934 (with illustrations by Rex Whistler ); New edition: Vintage Books, ISBN 0-679-73641-7 .
Danish: Isak Dinesen: Syv fantastiske fortællinger (Vejene omkring Pisa; Den gamle vandrende Ridder; Aben; Syndfloden over Norderney; Et Familieselskab i Helsingør; Drømmerne; Digteren). - København: Reitzels, 1935.
German (first German edition): Tania Blixen, The Flood of Norderney and other strange stories . Translated from English by Martin Lang and WE Süskind. - Stuttgart & Berlin: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1937.
German (partial edition): Fantastic stories (The ways around Pisa; The old, wandering knight; The monkey; A family reunion on Elsinore). [From Danish] into German. transfer by Thyra Dohrenburg. - Reinbek (Hamburg), Rowohlt Verlag, 1962 (rororo 490)
German (new edition): Tania Blixen, Seven Fantastic Stories (The Flood of Norderney; The old, errant knight; The monkey; The streets around Pisa; A family reunion in Elsinore; The dreamers; The poet). German by Thyra Dohrenburg, Martin Lang and WE Süskind. - Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1979 & Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1982 (rororo 5006).
  • Isak Dinesen: Out of Africa . - London: Putnam, 1937; New York: Random House, 1938. (This collection of experiences and the book “Shadows wander over the grass” served as a template for the film “Out of Africa”, German: “ Jenseits von Afrika ”)
Danish: Karen Blixen: Den Afrikanske Farm . - Copenhagen: Gyldendal , 1937
German: Tania Blixen: Africa - dark alluring world . From the English v. Rudolf von Scholtz. - Stuttgart & Berlin: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, undated [1938?]. New edition Stuttgart 1954 etc. & Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1954 (rororo 133) u.ö. & Zurich, Manesse-Verlag 1986, etc. ISBN 978-3-7175-1718-4 . ( No. 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list from May 26th to July 6th, 1986 )
German (new edition): Tania Blixen: The African Farm . From the Danish by Gisela Perlet. - Rostock: Hinstorff, 1989. Revised new edition. under the title Jenseits von Afrika , epilogue by Ulrike Draesner; Zurich: Manesse, 2010. ISBN 978-3-7175-2202-7 .
  • Isak Dinesen: Winter's Tales (The Young Man with the Carnation; Sorrow-acre; The Heroine; The Sailor-boy's Tale; The Pearls; The Invincible Slave-owners; The Dreaming Child; Alkmene; The Fish; Peter and Rosa; A Consolatory Valley). - New York: Random House; London: Putnam, 1942
Danish: Karen Blixen, Vinter-Eventyr (Skibsdrengens fortælling; Den unge mand med nelliken; En historie om en perle; De steadhaftige slaveejere; Heloïse; Det drømmende barn; Fra det gamle Danmark; Alkmene; Peter og Rosa; Sorg-agre; En opbyggelig history). - Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1942;
German (partial edition): Tania Blixen: Kamingeschichten (The story of a pearl; Heloise; From old Denmark; Alkmene; Peter and Rosa; Leid-Äcker; An edifying story) Translated from the Danish by Thyra Dohrenburg. - Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt (rororo 250), 1958.
German (complete): Tania Blixen: Wintergeschichten (The young man with the carnation; Leidacker; The heroine; The story of the cabin boy; The pearls; The invincible slave owners; The dreaming child; Alcmene; The fish; Peter and Rosa; A comforting story ). Translated from English by Jürgen Schweier. - Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1985 & Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt (rororo 5951), 1988. ISBN 3-499-23126-3
  • Pierre Andrézel: Gengældelsens Veje . "Translated into Danish by Clara Svendsen" [sic]. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1944;
English: Pierre Andrézel: The Angelic Avengers . London: Putnam, 1946; New York: Random House, 1947. Kessinger Publishing Co., 2005. ISBN 1-4191-1825-0
German: Pierre Andrézel: The revenge of the angels . Translated from Danish by Thyra Dohrenburg. - Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt (rororo 319), 1959. - New edition. (under the name Tania Blixen!) Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1990 & Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 2000, 27. – 34. Thousand
  • Isak Dinesen: Last Tales (The Cardinal's First Tale; The Cloak, Night Walk; Of Hidden Thoughts and of Heaven; Tales of Two Old Gentlemen; The Cardinal's Third Tale; The Blank Page; The Caryatids, an unfinished tale; Echoes; A Country Tale; Copenhagen Season; Converse At Night in Copenhagen). - New York: Random House; London: Putnam, 1957;
Danish: Karen Blixen: Sidste Fortællinger (Kapitler af romanen Albondocani [Kardinalens første historie; Kappen; Nattevandring; Om hemmeligheder og om himlen; To gamle herrers historier; Kardinalens tredje historie; Det ubeskrevne blad]; Nye fantastiske fortællinger. [Karyatidællinger vinter-eventyr [En herregårdshistorie; Ib og Adelaide; Samtale om natten i København]). - Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1958.
German (selection): Tania Blixen: Widerhall . Final Tales (The Cardinal's First Tale; The Coat; Nocturnal Wandering; Two Old Gentlemen Telling Stories; The Cardinal's Third Tale; Echoes; A Country Tale; Season in Copenhagen; Nocturnal Conversation in Copenhagen). From the English by Wolfheinrich von der Mülbe and WE Süskind. - Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1959 & Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1968 (dtv 468) & Zurich: Manesse, 1985 ISBN 3-7175-1682-5
[not included in the German edition: Om hemmeligheder og om himlen , Det ubeskrevne blad , Karyatiderne ]
  • Isak Dinesen: Anecdotes of Destiny (The Diver; Babette's Feast; Tempests; The Immortal Story; The Ring). - New York: Random House; London: Michael Joseph, 1958. Vintage, ISBN 0-679-74333-2
Danish: Karen Blixen: Skæbne-Anekdoter (Dykkeren; Babettes gæstebud; Storme; Den udødelige historie; Wrestling). - Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1960.
German: Tania Blixen: fate anecdotes (The diver; Babette's banquet; storms; the immortal story; the ring). - Frankfurt a. M .: S. Fischer Verlag, 1960 & Rostock: VEB Hinstorff, 1980 & Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1982 & Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1984 (rororo 5421).
  • Karen Blixen: Skygger på Græsset . Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1960.
English: Isak Dinesen: Shadows on the Grass . New York: Random House; London; Michael Joseph, 1961. (This book and "Africa - dark alluring world" served as a template for the film "Out of Africa", German: "Jenseits von Afrika")
German: Tania Blixen: Shadows wander over the grass . From the English by Wolfheinrich von der Mülbe and WE Süskind. - Frankfurt a. M .: S. Fischer Verlag, 1961. - New edition. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1986.
  • Karen Blixen: Osceola . Ed. af Clara Svendsen. København: Gyldendals Julebog, 1962.

Published posthumously

  • Karen Blixen: Honor Guard . - København: Gyldendal, 1963.
English Isak Dinesen: Ehrengard . - New York: Random House; London: Michael Joseph, 1963.
German: Tania Blixen: Ehrengard . From the English by Fritz Lorch. - Frankfurt / M .: S. Fischer Verlag, 1965 & Frankfurt a. M .: Suhrkamp, ​​1986. New edition: Frankfurt am Main: Insel-Verlag, 2001, 1st edition.
  • Karen Blixen: Essays (Moderne ægteskab og other betragtninger; Sorte og hvide i Afrika; Om Retskrivning; Breve fra et land i krig; Gensyn med England; HC Branner: "Rytteren", Til fire kultegninger, Daguerreotypier, En båltale med 14 års forsinkelse , Fra lægmand til lægmand, Rungstedlund: en radiotale, with livs mottoer). - København: Gyldendal, 1965.
German: Tania Blixen: Mottos of my life. Considerations from three decades. With a foreword by Sigrid Daub. Translated into German by S. Daub, W. Boehlich, H. Grössel and H. Hjort. (Preface; Modern marriage and other considerations; Blacks and whites in Africa; Letters from a country at war [Germany early 1940]; Reunion with England; HC Branner: “The Rider”; On four charcoal drawings; Daguerreotypes; A celebratory speech at the campfire, held fourteen years late; From layman to layman; Rungstedlund. A speech on the radio; The mottos of my life; Notes, bibliography). - Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt 1991 & Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1993 (rororo 13190)
[not included in the German edition is the article from 1938 on the Danish spelling reform Om Retskrivning ]
  • Karen Blixen: Efterladte fortællinger (Eneboerne; Pløjeren; Brudeparret ventes; Familien de Cats; Uncle Théodore; Carnival; Den sidste dag; Kongesønnerne; Uncle Seneca; Den fede mand; Anna; Den stolte dame; Bjørnen og kysset; Gensyn). - Gyldendal, 1975.
English (selection): Isak Dinesen: Carnival : Entertainments and Posthumous Tales (Foreword by Frans Lasson; The De Cats Family, Uncle Theodore, Carnival, The Last Day, Uncle Seneca, The Fat Man, Anna, The Ghost Horses, The Proud Lady , The Bear and the Kiss, Second Meeting). - Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977.
German (selection): Tania Blixen: Gespensterpferde. Lagged narratives (The de Cats Family, The Hermits, Uncle Theodore, The Last Day, Uncle Seneca, The Fat Man, Ghost Horses, The Proud Lady, The Bear and the Kiss, Goodbye). German by Ursula Gunsilius. - Rostock: VEB Hinstorff, 1982 & Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1984 & Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1986 (rororo 5711).
[The German edition largely follows the English edition in terms of content and layout. Not included: Carnival and Anna , as well as from the Danish Pløjeren and Kongesønnerne .
In addition to the honor guard , these are included in: Tania Blixen: Carnival . German by Ursula Gunsilius & Fritz Lorch. (Carnival; Anna; Ehrengard; The Plowman; The King's Sons). - Stuttgart: DVA 1995 & Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1998 (rororo 22172)]
  • Karen Blixen: Breve fra Afrika: 1914–31 . Udg. af Frans Lasson. 2 bind. - København: Gyldendal, 1978 (2 vols.)
English Isak Dinesen: Letters from Africa: 1914 - 1931 , ed. by Frans Lasson, translated by Anne Born. - Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981
German Tania Blixen: Letters from Africa 1914-1931 . Translated from the Danish by Sigrid Daub. - Stuttgart: DVA 1988. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1993 (rororo 13244)
  • Isak Dinesen: Daguerreotypes and Other Essays . - Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979
  • Isak Dinesen: On Modern Marriage and Other Observations . - New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986
  • Karen Blixen: Caryatiderne: en ufuldendt historie , papirklip ved Sonia Brandes. - København: Gyldendal, 1993
english The Caryatids: an unfinished tale , engelsk udg. - Gyldendal, 1993
  • Karen Blixen i Danmark: Breve 1931-1962 ; Danish, edited by Frans Lasson and Tom Engelbrecht. - København: Gyldendal, 1996 (2 vols.)
  • Karen Blixen's art = The Art of Karen Blixen : tegninger and painter. - [o. O.] Karen Blixen Museet, 159 sider, 2001. 2. rev. Udg. : Karen Blixen Museet, 159 sider, 2002.

Further German editions

  • Tania Blixen: Babettes Fest (translated from the English by WE Süskind). Manesse-Verlag, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7175-4034-3 .
  • Tania Blixen: Letters from Africa 1914-1931 . Translated from the Danish by Sigrid Daub. DVA, Stuttgart 1988. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1993 (rororo 13244).
  • Tania Blixen: The streets around Pisa . Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1951; New edition 1962. Manesse-Verlag, Zurich, ISBN 3-7175-8212-7 .
  • Tania Blixen: The dreamers and other strange stories . (The falcon; the young man with the carnation; the dreamers; the deluge of Norderney; the invincible; the dream child; the poet). Transfers v. Martin Lang , Rudolf von Scholtz and WE Süskind. - Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt undated [1955]. Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag [without the Flood of Norderney ] (dtv, Volume 77). (Tales from Seven Gothic Tales and Winter's Tales ).
  • Tania Blixen: The dreamers . Manesse, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-7175-8238-0 .
  • Tania Blixen: The Immortal Story . Manesse-Verlag, Zurich 2006.
  • Tania Blixen: Carnival . German by Ursula Gunsilius and Fritz Lorch. (Carnival; Anna; Ehrengard; The Plowman; The King's Sons). DVA, Stuttgart 1995. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1998 (rororo 22172).
  • Tania Blixen: Modern Marriage and Other Considerations . From the Danish by Walter Boehlich. Nachw. By Hanns Grössel. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1992. 100 pages, ISBN 3-518-38471-6 .
  • Tania Blixen: New Winter Stories . Dtv, Munich 1995, original edition.
  • Tania Blixen: Storms . Story, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1996 (mini-rororo 22005).

German audio books

Secondary literature

  • Helmut Ahrens: The African years of Tania Blixen. A biographical sketch . Droste , Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-7700-4065-1 .
  • Hannah Arendt : Isak Dinesen (di Tania Blixen) in: People in dark times . Piper, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-492-23355-4 , pp. 107-124.
  • Susan C. Brantly: Understanding Isak Dinesen - (Understanding Modern European and Latin American Literature) . University of South Carolina Press 2002, ISBN 1-57003-428-1 (introduction to the work and interpretation of the following stories: Seven Gothic Tales, Out of Africa, Winter's Tales, Last Tales, Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard ).
  • Detlef Brennecke: Tania Blixen . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1996, ISBN 978-3-499-50561-4 .
  • Thorkild Bjørnvig : The Pact . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, Danish: Pagten . København 1974.
  • Thomas Dinesen: My Sister, Isak Dinesen . Joseph, London 1975, Danish: Fir . København 1974.
  • Günter Helmes : From Protestant asceticism, the Paris Commune, a dîner français and a lot more. Void, thirst for life and the art of living in Isak Dinesens / Karen Blixens / Tania Blixen's novella "Babette's Feast" (1950, 1958) / "Babettes Gæstebud" (1952, 1958) / "Babettes Fest" (1960). In: Julia Ricart Brede, Naima Tahiri: Eating and drinking. Multidisciplinary perspectives on everyday human activity in different cultures. Hamburg 2020, pp. 39–107. ISBN 978-3-86815-727-7
  • Frans Lasson, Clara Selborn: Tania Blixen. Your life in Denmark and Africa. A picture biography . DVA, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-421-06341-9 .
  • Parmenia Migel: Titania. The Biography of Isak Dinesen . New York 1967.
  • Ulrike Schuerkens: The image of Africa in Karen Blixen's “Out of Africa” . In: Anthropos . Vol. 94, H. 1-3 (1999), pp. 141-148.
  • Clara Selborn: The mistress of Rungstedlund . DVA, Stuttgart 1993.
  • Ngugi wa Thiongo : "Your cook, your dog". Karen Blixen's Africa . In: Moving the Center. Essays on the Liberation of African Cultures . Unrast, Münster 1995. ISBN 3-928300-27-X . Pp. 164-168.
  • Judith Thurman : Tania Blixen. Your life and work (Original title: Isak Dinesen. The Life of a Storyteller ). German by Barbara Henninges and Margarete Längfeld . DVA , Stuttgart 1989. ISBN 3-421-06494-6 .
  • Errol Trzebinski: Silence Will Speak. A Study of the Life of Denys Finch-Hatton and His Relationship with Karen Blixen . London 1977.
  • Anders Westenholz: Kraftens horn. Myte og virkelighed i Karen Blixens liv , ( The Horns of Power. Myth and Reality in the Life of Karen Blixen ). København 1982. (Danish).

Web links

Commons : Karen Blixen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Jürg Glauser, In: Tania Blixen: Africa, dark alluring world . In: Manesse Library of World Literature . 6th edition. Manesse Verlag, Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-7175-1718-X , p. 465-480 (in the afterword, mainly the conclusion on page 480).
  2. ^ Honorary Members: Isak Dinesen. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 9, 2019 .
  3. Candidates for the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature at nobelprize.org, January 2, 2013 (accessed April 19, 2013).
  4. Jürg Glauser (Ed.): Scandinavian literary history. Metzler, Stuttgart 2006, p. 281.