Richard AmmonDenmark: Karen Blixen Museum in Denmark and Nairobi
Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (1885-1962) was a Danish author also known under her pen name Isak Dinesen. Blixen wrote works both in Danish and in English. She is best known, at least in English, for the book Out of Africa, her account of living in Kenya that was made into a major film in 1985. Another one of her stories, Babette’s Feast, was also adapted into highly acclaimed motion picture. In Denmark she is best known for her works Out of Africa, Seven Gothic Tales, Babette’s Feast and Ehrengard, among others.
Twenty four kilometers north of Copenhagen is the town of Rungsted on the Kattegat Strait (separates Denmark from Sweden) where her family owned a farm that is now a museum of her life and works as well as her burial site.
Also, in Nairobi, Kenya where she lived for several years, there is another Blixen Museum in the suburbs on land that was once her coffee plantation. When the coffee company failed Blixen returned o Denmark and the plantation eventually became the Karen Country Club golf course.
