With big dreams, they purchased two more coffee farms, but a series of droughts left them profitless.ĭinesen and Bror separated and then divorced in 1925, leaving Dinesen in charge of the failing coffee farms. She stayed there for most of 19 before reconciling with Bror. Afraid and angry, she returned to Denmark for treatment. Within the year, however, Dinesen discovered that she had contracted syphilis from her unfaithful husband. With the emotional and financial support of their family, the couple bought 700 acres of land in East Africa and began cultivating it for coffee beans. On January 14, 1914, Dinesen married her second cousin, Bror von Blixen-Finecke, a baron's son. When Dinesen was twenty-two, several of her short stories were published in literary journals. Literature played a prominent role in Dinesen's family her grandfather had been friends with the fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen, and her father, brother, a sister, and an aunt were all writers. This was devastating to Dinesen, who had shared a close relationship with her father. When Dinesen was ten, her father committed suicide. Her father was loosely related to royalty, and her mother was the daughter of a successful shipowner.

Karen Blixen (also known as Isak Dinesen) was born Karen Christentze Dinesen on April 17, 1885, near Copenhagen, Denmark. Dinesen's admirers and scholars often seek parallels between her life and her writing, and in 'Babette's Feast' Dinesen seems to draw on her childhood and adult experiences to give the story depth and authenticity. As an adult, Dinesen found herself operating a coffee farm in East Africa, an experience that taught her a great deal about contrasting people and cultures. Through this experience, Dinesen came to understand and appreciate the ways women take care of loved ones and of each other. In the wake of this tragedy, her grandmother and a nearby aunt helped care for the family. In 1958, 'Babette's Feast,' along with other stories published in magazines, was compiled into Anecdotes of Destiny, which was available as of 2004.Īs a child, Dinesen suffered the loss of her father by suicide. A friend had advised her to write about food because Americans love food, so she crafted a story about the transformative powers of a very special feast. A number of her stories were featured in Ladies' Home Journal, including 'Babette's Feast,' which was first published in 1950. Having established her reputation as an author in the 1930s and 1940s, she sought to increase her income in the 1950s by having stories published in American magazines. Perhaps best known for Out of Africa (1937), Isak Dinesen is the pseudonym of Karen Blixen.

Babette's feast karen blixen