Karen Dinesen Blixen (1885-1962) was born to a wealthy Danish family. Her mother came from a wealthy Unitarian merchant family, while her father was an army officer who later became a politician. She spent most of her time with her maternal family and was homeschooled by her grandmother and aunt following her father’s death when she was nine years old. Her storytelling talent emerged at a young age in the stories she used to tell her siblings at bedtime. At 17, Karen studied art at Charlotte Sode’s art school in Copenhagen and continued studying art and literature at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. As a student, Karen started publishing her stories in Danish periodicals under the pseudonym Osceola, the name of her father’s dog. In 1914, Karen arrived in Kenya with her soon-to-be husband, the Swedish Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, aiming to establish a coffee plantation. Soon, her uncle established the Karen Coffee Company, named after his daughter, Karen. Two years later, in 1916, the Karen company purchased Mbogani, a 6,000-acre farm near the Ngong Hills to the southwest of Nairobi, and a year later, Karen and her husband moved to the farmhouse. After Karen and her husband separated in 1921, she took over the management of the farm. Ten years later, in 1931, following the failure of the plantation, Karen returned to Denmark and sold the farm to a local developer. In 1934, she published her first book in the US under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen; its success led to the publication in the UK and Denmark. Karen became a famous writer and published nine books and numerous essays, poems, and articles. She was considered several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature and was awarded the Danish Holberg Medal (1949) and the Ingenio et Arti Medal (1952). The area where the plantation once stood was named Karen, and the Danish government purchased the farmhouse and gave it to the Kenyan government in 1964. A college of nutrition operated at the facility till 1985 when the National Museums of Kenya purchased it following the popularity of the 1985 movie Out of Africa, which was based on Karen’s life in Africa. The Karen Blixen Museum was established a year later. The museum displays Karen’s furniture and personal items, paintings she painted while living at the house, historic agricultural equipment, and many more. It commemorates Karen’s legacy and serves as a cultural and historical landmark that showcases the life of European settlers in Kenya. The Karen Blixen Museum in Rungstedlund, Denmark, is located at her family estate, where she had lived most of her life. Read more...