Her younger brother, Thomas Dinesen, grew up to earn the Victoria Cross in the First World War. Karen Dinesen was the second oldest in a family of three sisters and two brothers. Her mother, Ingeborg Westenholz (1856–1939), came from a wealthy Unitarian bourgeois merchant family of ship owners. He was from a wealthy family of Jutland landowners closely connected to the monarchy, the established church and conservative politics. Her father, Wilhelm Dinesen (1845–1895), was a writer and army officer, including in the 1864 war by Denmark against Prussia and who also joined the French army against Prussia and wrote about the Paris Commune. Karen Dinesen was born in the manor house of Rungstedlund, north of Copenhagen.

Karen Blixen with her brother Thomas on the family farm in Kenya in the 1920s īlixen was considered several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but it wasn't awarded because judges were reportedly concerned about showing favoritism to Scandinavian writers, according to Danish reports. Among her later stories are Winter's Tales (1942), Last Tales (1957), Anecdotes of Destiny (1958) and Ehrengard (1963). She is also noted, particularly in Denmark, for her Seven Gothic Tales. She is also known under her pen names Isak Dinesen, used in English-speaking countries, Tania Blixen, used in German-speaking countries, Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel.īlixen is best known for Out of Africa, an account of her life while living in Kenya, and for one of her stories, Babette's Feast, both of which have been adapted into Academy Award–winning motion pictures. Andreas Nicolai Hansen (great-grandfather)īaroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (born Dinesen 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962) was a Danish author who wrote works in Danish and English.

Isak dinesen short stories