Isak Dinesen

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ID , cosmopolitan fiction-writer of the mid twentieth century writing in Danish and English, produced short stories in periodicals and collections, a couple of novels, and two highly unusual books about Africa in which the element of travel-writing or reporting is outweighed by the construction of an imaginative utopia depicting a richer life than that of the modern and everyday. Her letters, published after her death, are also unusual and fascinating examples of their genre. She is an important figure, known for her use of symbolism, myth, fable, romance, and fairy-tale, and for her exotic settings and esoteric subject-matter. But her central concern was the situation of women.
Stambaugh, Sara. The Witch and the Goddess in the Stories of Isak Dinesen. UMI Research Press.
1
Black and white photograph of Isak Dinesen. She is shown from the shoulders up, and she wears a fur stole and fur hat, with pearl earrings.

Milestones

17 April 1885

Karen Dinesen (who later became Karen Blixen and wrote as ID ) was born at Rungstedlund, near Copenhagen in Denmark; it stands on the sea, looking across the water to Sweden.
Thurman, Judith. Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller. St Martin’s Press.
22, 24
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

August 1907

Karen Dinesen (later ID ), already writing tales in Danish as a student, published a piece called The Hermits in Tilskueren, a respected literary journal edited by Valdemar Vedel . She used the pseudonym Osceola.
Thurman, Judith. Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen. Penguin.
104

Later 1937

Under her actual name of Karen Blixen, ID re-created and interpreted her lost African world in the autobiographical Out of Africa, issued in parallel versions in two languages in England and Denmark.
Thurman, Judith. Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen. Penguin.
330 and n18, 531

October 1960

ID published the final book of her lifetime: another memoir of her life in Africa, Shadows on the Grass.
The British National Bibliography. Council of the British National Bibliography; British Library, Bibliographic Services Division.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

7 September 1962

ID died of emaciation, after a lifetime of inherited syphilis and the removal of part of her stomach.
Thurman, Judith. Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller. St Martin’s Press.
443
Pelensky, Olga Anastasia. Isak Dinesen: The Life and Imagination of a Seducer. Ohio University Press.
175

Biography

Tanne was a family nickname, Tania (originally Titania) a pet name given by Denys Finch Hatton, and Jerie a name given by the older Kikuyu women, meaning the one who pays attention.
Pelensky, Olga Anastasia. Isak Dinesen: The Life and Imagination of a Seducer. Ohio University Press.
120
Thurman, Judith. Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller. St Martin’s Press.
127

Birth and Family

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