Rare Photos of Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen)

I've noticed on my blog stats lots of people who find this blog do so because they're looking for Karen Blixen, which makes me quite happy as she well deserves the attention, but on the other hand I don't have so much posted about her - a few pictures, quotes, and a few stories about my own personal discovery of Dinesen as an author.

Here are some other posts for Karen Blixen in case you weren't able to find them:

http://lafemmeflaneuse.blogspot.com/2011/06/updates-karen-blixen.html
http://lafemmeflaneuse.blogspot.com/2010/07/isak-dinesen-africa-and-lions.html
http://lafemmeflaneuse.blogspot.com/2009/02/on-pain.html

Now the pictures I'm posting today are all from a little book I found at a library sale printed by Phoenix, an imprint of the University of Chicago press. At one point Dinesen and the University of Chicago must have had an agreement because aside from my first editions, I have reading copies of all of Dinesen's works from the UC press, but "The Life and Destiny of Isak Dinesen" was a seriously wonderful find.

It contains more than two hundred photographs from Karen's artistocratic ancestors to the very last days of her life. I chose a few I thought might be the most interesting and convinced Monsieur Redacteur to scan them for me because I hate scanning.

Unknown to many, Karen was a very gifted artist as you can see from the portrait she painted of her manservant Farah (whom she treated with great respect and affection).

Karen with her sketchbook in Kullen, July 15, 1907. She was at this time studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

Karen at her desk and her bedroom in Kenya.

Karen and Bror in the study.

Karen with her pet owl that met a sad end as it tried to eat the cord on a curtain.

Now one of the best parts of the book? Well since it was used it came with an inscription -

Barbara,

No matter what happens in our lives it's good. Everything is for our benefit. Some things are better than others. You are one of the best. Thank for sharing your laughter and love with me!

Mark

And then just a page afterwards, a quote from Karen herself; a facsimile of her own writing and signature and the English translation of the words -

We must leave our mark on life while we have it in our power, lest it should close up, when we leave it, without a trace

Karen Blixen

When I give a book as a present I always inscribe it unless it's a rare or first edition book (then I write the inscription on a beautiful card and give the receiver the choice of having me inscribe the words into the book if they would like) and I could never imagine giving away a book that had been inscribed to me, but here it's quite a touching glimpse because it fits.

Karen Blixen was a woman who trials and tribulations managed still to live an excitingly beautiful and vivid life. She also wrote great books. I can say without reservation I have never read her words without pleasure.

She has been a great inspiration to me and if she's a great inspiration to you, I hope you enjoy the pictures and check out the book.

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Updates & Karen Blixen

So I am only a few days away from leaving for Holland and to say I'm excited would be a massive understatement. I'll be meeting a few friends, hanging out at Zandvoort, and eating a massive quantity of Thai food. I'll be blogging my daily adventures in Holland, so be sure to drop by.

In the meantime I have a house to clean, packing to do, and all those other little errands one must run before leaving for a trip. I hate packing. I really do. I've decided to make it easier on myself and just pack a few things that I can wear over and over again since the place I'm renting has a washing machine though I have recently lost a bit of weight and want to flaunt it a little!

A word on dieting. Don't diet. I've been trying for the past few months to simply move my ass a little more than usual and since deciding to cut out processed foods (I make my own ketcup now even) what I eat has become a lot more healthy. I know I'm going to gain a little weight in Amsterdam because I need to eat all the things I love to eat in Holland (Febo satekrokets being one of the things I need to eat) since I might not get a chance to go back for a few months. But hey, who doesn't gain a little weight on vacation?

I have posts scheduled to go up over the weekend in case I don't have a chance (or the energy) to blog. So be sure to check back and thank you to my new readers in Austria, Mexico, Russia, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Most of my readers seem to be from France and the US (which makes sense), but also Denmark.

If you've read my archives you probably know one of the women I admire most in the world, Karen Blixen was from Denmark. I pick up one of her books every now and then, randomly open it, and just read. She had a truly beautiful soul that woman. She was also a beautiful storyteller.

Here's what I read today:

"People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue. They also know that the real glory of dreams lies in their atmosphere of unlimited freedom. It is not the freedom of the dictator, who enforces his own will on the world, but the freedom of the artist, who has no will, who is free of will. The pleasure of the true dreamer does not lie in the substance of the dream, but in this: that there things happen without any interference from his side, and altogether outside his control. Great landscapes create themselves, long splendid views, rich and delicate colours, roads, houses, which he has never seen or heard of..."
I collect pictures of her, this is one of my favourites.

If you would like to read Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), you might want to read her book "Anecdotes of Destiny". It's now my favourite and the last she ever wrote. (My favourite before was Shadows on the Grass, which I was happy to have found a beautiful first American edition of a few years ago.)

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Isak Dinesen, Africa, and Lions

When I was a little girl I spent a lot of my younger years in Africa. By this time all the animals I'd read about in books had long since vanished from Senegal because of hunting and modernisation, but it didn't keep me from dreaming about going on safari.

At the time, my nannie, who was of Kikuyu decent proposed to my father than I join her for a vacation in her native Kenya. It took a lot of begging and pouting, but finally my father agreed and I was to have the safari I had always dreamed about. My father borrowed an old Land Rover from one of our neighbors and packed enough gear for three safaris, or at least it looked rather excessive to me at the age of 7.

What countries we crossed have long escaped my memory although I still remember Mali, Nigeria, and crossing through the uppermost part of what was then Zaire on our way to Nairobi. There was trouble in Africa during the 80's and we had a serious scare along the trip, but eventually arrived to Nairobi shaken but unharmed.

I dreamed I saw a lion climbing on an Africa brush tree and told my father we would see one. The trip took several weeks and we were almost near the end. The animal we mostly had to deal with were baboons who are quite terrifying despite their funny red bottoms. Near the very end of our journey my dream came true. I saw the lioness first and then a glimpse of mane caught my eye in some brush. A moment later out come Monsieur Leo in all of his regal glory.

After that I forgot most of the time I actually spent in Nairobi except for the traditional songs of the Kikuyu and how hospitable they were towards me. I got the feeling they simply loved children. I had brought gifts with me of wax fabrics and rice and bracelets I had made from string, but what they really wanted were my sneakers, my t-shirts, and my cassettes and Walk-man. I left all of these behind when we left (this time by plane as to avoid any other incidents) and am convinced to this day that I singlehandedly brought Madonna and George Michael to Kenya, though I suppose this is hardly true.

If I had known then that Nairobi had been the place where one of my favorite authors had lived a grand part of her life, I might have asked my father to bring me to see where she had lived at the foot of the Ngong Hills, but at the time I didn't know anything about Isak Dinesen or Karen Blixen or her amazing books.

I was 12 years old when I first discovered Karen Blixen through the film Out of Africa based on a book of the same name and part of another one of Dinesen's books Shadows on the Grass. I cried my eyes out at the end not only because of the hardships of her life and the loss of her great love Denys Finchatten, but also for the loss of an Africa that no longer existed. I immediately went to the library and checked out as many books as I could written by Isak Dinesen and it was the first time I found myself as interested in the writing as I was in the life of the author.

It's silly to say it, but as I prepare for my adventure in this new stage of my life, I cannot help but to recall her words. She was a courageous woman. Flawed but courageous to the point that even macho Hemingway admired her and her work. I am not crossing Africa, but I have left behind a part my life and I divide my life between two cities. Like Ms. Blixen I would like to find that place which resonates with me so deeply that I may someday write similar words such as these:

If I know a song of Africa


-of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back,
of the ploughs in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers,
does Africa know a song of me?
Would the air over the plain quiver with a colour that I had on,
or the children invent a game in which my name was,
or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me,
or would the eagles of Ngong look out for me?

I don't have a coffee farm or the Ngong Hills as my backyard but like Karen I brought my modern conveniences - my crystal, my furniture, my dog (she had a Scottish deerhound) even a cuckoo clock bought while on a trip in the Schwartenvald (Black Forest) where Karen bought her own cuckoo clock that amazed the Kikuyu that lived and worked on her farm, and made a home. Instead of trying to cultivate something from the soil I will try to unearth my words and find my voice. I have never lacked courage, no matter what was in front of me because I believe as Karen said,

"God made the earth round so that we would never be able to see too far down the road".

A picture of Karen Blixen's study with Masai warrior weapons and shield

on the wall, her desk, and her collection of books.

I hope to have a space like this one day.

As a child I looked at the horizon with great curiosity and impatience to know what was just beyond it and even now, older and wiser, I still see the horizon with the same eyes and feel the same impatience despite knowing that the horizon is unreachable because it is the journey that is the adventure.

Good thing I love a good adventure!

Further reading:

Out of Africa
Shadows on the Grass
Seven Gothic Tales,
Ehrengard
Anecdotes of Destiny
Letters from Africa

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More Book Buying Abroad

So I went to the US for a short trip of gambling, stocking up on American consumer goodness, and book buying. I visited a few fantastic bookshops but the best of all was Calico Cat Books in Ventura, California. Here I snapped up a rare edition of Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the 1956 edition of Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 7 volumes, and a very nice copy of Journey to the West. At Starlight Books in Flagstaff Arizona I bought an odd book edited by Italo Calvino of Italian Fairytales, W. Somerset Maugham's book on Kipling, and a first edition of Knut Hamsun's Pan. This was an exciting purchase as it is an extremely rare printing by Knopf from 1921 after Hamsun won the Nobel.

Needless to say I came home with so many books that I had to rush to Walmart with my best friend THL at 3 in the morning to buy another suitcase and repack (after we drove back to Vegas for our flight back to Paris along Route 66) as we were a bit over the max weight limit per suitcase.

One thing I find amusing is that bookstores here in Paris are always trying to be more American and bookstores in the US are always trying to be more European. Europeans read a lot. But don't lose faith America - aside from the Les Pleiades, printed by Gallimard (which are for French people the ultimate editions and rightly so, they're AMAZING and cause me to drool whenever I see them) - American books are much better printed in general.

The real score of my American book buying was finding a first edition Charlotte's Web by EB White for $4.00!!!! No seriously. It even had a printing flaw, where the last chapter's start page had to be written in by hand...would be interested hearing from any collector's if this means anything? I'm adding this on my shelf beside my 1st American Edition of The Trumpet of the Swan, which is my favorite EB White Book.

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On pain...

"I've got this little thing I've learned to do just lately...When it's so hard I think I shan't go on, I try to make it worse. I make myself think about Berkeley. Our camp on the river. How good it was. When I'm certain I won't stand it, I go a moment more. Then I know I can bear anything."

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