– Woman, Heretic and Artist 

By Else Brundbjerg

Translated by Lars Kaaber, Denmark


Introduction
When I first became acquainted with the art of Karen Blixen in Seven Gothic Tales, I found it moving and fascinating. The tales were entertaining, they contained wonderful
descriptions of nature, of various environments and people, but at the same time I felt that even this was not the whole truth about her - these works contained much more than that.

It turned into a challenge which I could not ignore, and it led to many re-readings which brought me to a deeper understanding. Underneath the poetical and controlled style loomed a rebellion and a provocation, but it was all composed with the warm humour of someone privy to the innermost secrets of human nature.

Out of Africa supplied me with an opening to many of her other writings because she is so present herself in this book. It also provided me with an understanding of the strength it must have taken not to lapse into self-pity and resignation after the years in Africa. The extraordinary will always attract attention and so did she, but such attention may easily develop into a cult, unduly focused on the private life of the person in question.

Karen Blixen refrained from discussing her private life. Although she would speak of her personal life in general, she chose only to reveal her private life - the events that had influenced her profoundly - in the disguised form of fiction. In doing so, she endowed her personal sphere with general significance and made it relevant to her many readers.

The purpose of this book is to present the main themes of her writings. The same themes appear throughout her authorship from beginning to end, but a maturing development of her artistic expression has occurred since the early stories published in her youth, making itself manifest in her later stories.

The style has become more refined, her irony more subtle, and she displays a knowledge of the powers working among - and presiding over - humanity.

I wish to present the matter objectively, although this may prove an impossible task. However, as the poet and critic Tom Kristensen put it in his article Critic and Reviewer: "...you may demand of me at least a dream of objectivity."

The biographical material will be played down, but it is not possible entirely to separate Karen Blixen's life from her writings. Whenever biographical material is included, it rests solely on Karen Blixen's own perception of events, as I will avoid critical or psychological speculations altogether.

Throughout the book you will find guidelines to a reading, or a re-reading, of Karen Blixen's writings, to enable you to draw your own personal conclusions. At the end of each chapter I will list some stories in which the theme dealt with in the chapter is dominant, but a more thorough interpretation of each of the stories would be out of place in this book.

Moreover, readers will be able to determine for themselves what to find in the text and what behind it, or what personal associations it evokes. Karen Blixen's writings will always be an individual experience based on the reader's own knowledge of life. This undoubtedly applies for those who knew her personally.

Much of the secondary literature published about Karen Blixen in recent years has advocated a somewhat demonic impression of her. The media, prone to sensational headlines, have kept this perception alive, as indeed they did in Karen Blixen's lifetime. I have no wish to idealise Karen Blixen, but I do feel that this demonic aspect threatens to swamp everything else and, in a disastrous way, tends to overshadow the actual
contents of her writings.

On the other hand, some may feel that I remove all that is extraordinary and exciting about Blixen's writings. This will no doubt apply to the chapter The Powers in which I expound Blixen's ideas of the powers of the universe, of God and the Devil. At worst, however, I can do little harm, as Blixen's ideology and outlook on life in itself is so challenging and inspiring that it will continue to attract readers.

If Karen Blixen had truly wished to appear to posterity as a mysterious and a somewhat demonic writer she would hardly have published a series of articles in 1960 which openly states the true intentions of her authorship.

Love and Finances

Article in the magazine "Kritik" no. 66 and 67, 1984.

A montage of Denys Finch Hatton's letters to Karen Blixen.

(page references: A = American edition, D = Danish translation.)

The background for this article was to investigate the sensational allegation that the relationship between Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen had already ended before the death of Finch Hatton, and that they had broken up because Blixen was
'diabolically possessive'.

This allegation is now referred to as if it were a fact.

"The break was witnessed by many people and there is no reason to doubt the veracity of the sources." we are told in the preface to Letters from Africa. It is a pity, though, that most of these sources have chosen to remain anonymous. They are 'old and close friends', but, nevertheless, they have not wished to stand by their information. 

These anonymous sources are quoted uncritically and are accepted with an equal lack of criticism by most readers. Can it be that the view which many people have of the older Karen Blixen - a view supported by the media and some of the books about her - is still, to many readers, identical with their view of the young Karen Blixen? Furthermore, the views of Blixen after her return to Denmark differ so much that a certain amount of subjectivity shines through, and that goes for the media as well as books.

The introduction to my article of 1984 read:

"Writers of the English-speaking world, and those of the US in particular, have another
tradition of celebrity biographies than the one known to Denmark, for instance. Divers
liberties are taken with the accessible sources, and the subject is often treated with an empathy that may seem luring and convincing. However, this can be taken so far that the biographers presume to know their subject's innermost wishes and hopes whereas they, in fact, only describe their own."

In the years since then I have changed my point of view, undoubtedly, as it turns out that Denmark seems to have caught up with the tradition of the English-speaking world. 

In an interview given at the publication of her book in the US where she had been well
received, Judith Thurman said that she had chosen to write this biography above others
because Karen Blixen was a world-class writer, very popular, sold well and had a great crowd of admirers, and Thurman added, "There is a tremendous interest in the kind of real-life drama which Karen Blixen's life represents..."

Judith Thurman has put a great deal of work into her book. She has had access to Karen Blixen's private papers at the Royal Danish Library and she has learned Danish in order to read the relevant documents. They contain the facts of Karen Blixen's life, which was indeed an unusual life - all the more reason to avoid rumours and perfunctory psychology in a serious biography.

Karen Blixen lost her father when she was ten years old and it was a great blow to her. She had felt very close to him. Thurman quotes Blixen that "It was (...) as if part of oneself had died" (A: p.30, D: p.49). "That part" Thurman adds, "was an ability to love spontaneously and trustingly".

When Thurman links this to a statement in a letter from 5th August, 1926, which speaks of the farm and its economy, and maintains that Blixen spent the rest of her life in a state of fear which "approached real horror...of putting one's life into, and abandoning one's soul to something that one might come to lose again" - then I believe
that Thurman is on the wrong track. My belief is strongly supported by a letter written by Karen Blixen around 1900 when she was fifteen years old (A: p.53, D: p.76). It is quoted here from the original text in the Karen Blixen archives:

"My dear and beloved friend, my wise and gentle brother.

If you had dwelt on earth still, I should have come to you and you would have taught me to love and to approach thine light, but you are gone away to higher worlds, I know not where you dwell, spirit that I love. But do not leave me alone, if your spirit dwells still sometime on the earth, where you loved and suffered, let it dwell with me, who love you, and give me only once a token, that you live and are the same, and that my spirit could reach thine, and if you give it me, I shall follow your footsteps and be your disciple now and always. Perhaps I shall be it in all cases, but you know my brother, how hard it is to be alone, be with me, and give me your bless, dear beloved
brother, my master and teacher, my dearest friend."

Judith Thurman believes that this letter is addressed to Blixen's father. We do not know that. It seems more plausible that it is addressed to Shakespeare, for which reason it is in English. 

The young Tanne Dinesen wrote her first literary attempts in grey note books, and this letter is to be found in such a note book which also contains the draft of a comedy she calls The Spring. Elves, spirits, shepherds and shepherdesses, and wood nymphs appear in this comedy which seems rather inspired by Shakespeare. In the following note books, containing a more elaborate draft of The Spring, she has made sketches for A Midsummer Night's Dream, several of which can be seen in Karen Blixen's Drawings. Moreover, in her letter she uses the archaic form of 'thine', used in Shakespearean English, and it seems natural to address an admired poet as 'brother'.
Would she have addressed her father like that? 

Karen Blixen 'discovered' Shakespeare when she was fourteen, and she later told Parmenia Migel, "The discovery was one of the really great events of my life". She was fifteen years old when she drew the sketches for A Midsummer Night's Dream and when they were published for the first time in 1950 she said that they testified to a life-long and faithful love of Shakespeare. She often expressed her admiration for Shakespeare and his poetry and once said, "I love Shakespeare, I could not have lived without him..." and "Master, I owe you much. You have lighted my way through life like a constellation of stars..."

Thurman interprets the letter above to be "so full of both erotic and religious feeling" and believes it to be addressed to Blixen's father which I hold to be a serious mistake. She hereby implies a father fixation which would make a normal, mature relationship with men difficult for the adult Karen Blixen. It is dangerous to analyse somebody according to psychological theories if one's knowledge of these theories is not thorough. It is too easy to put another person in a box, so to speak, and label it with some analysis, only to disregard the fact that a head or an arm sticks out in a desperate attempt to signal that the individual does not belong in the box at all. 

People are more unpredictable and never fit into a formula. Furthermore, such formulas are uninteresting. It is much more interesting to see how people use their individuality. 

The loss of a parent is certain to leave a mark on a child, but what came to matter greatly to Karen Blixen after the death of her father was her feeling that she was not accepted by her mother's family who had a great influence on the upbringing of the five Dinesen children. 

Karen Blixen was indeed different, and it is no use to refer to the Dinesen family's unselfish financial support. The difference went deeper. Ingeborg Dinesen expresses an understanding of this in the last letter printed in Letters from Africa. 

The allegation that a definite break took place between Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton was first presented by Errol Trzebinski in her biography on Denys Finch Hatton.

In her eagerness to assess the degree of his declining feelings for Karen Blixen, Trzebinski went as far as to divide a letter into two parts to give the impression that it was written on two different occasions, notwithstanding the fact that it was one and the same letter.

This article is an effort to let the two parties speak for themselves as much as possible. Karen Blixen's views can be read in her books and in her letters from Africa. When it comes to Denys Finch Hatton, such testimonies are harder to come by. Very little of what he wrote has survived. He himself asked addressees to destroy his letters after reading them. 

Karen Blixen did not comply with this in all cases. 12 letters and 2 telegrams from Denys Finch Hatton can be found in the Karen Blixen archives at the Royal Danish Library. Six of the letters carry no date at all, and in three of them, he omits reference to the year in which they were written, but in most cases this can be established with certainty by the contents. Letters and telegrams are kept in a yellow folder and were put in order immediately after they were donated to the library. Furthermore, the number of letters match that written on the folder.

Karen Blixen met Denys Finch Hatton for the first time on the 5th of April, 1918 and wrote to her mother that she had met an unusually charming person of whom she had heard a great deal, although she had never before met him in person.

In the same letter she writes:

"It is strange to talk to Englishmen who have been in the war or are going out again. None of them is afraid, of course, but in a way you feel that this is due to a certain contempt for life rather than what is normally called courage, because none of them has anything that they would regret leaving, or anything they really "love".....neither their mothers, their mistresses, nor their children - perhaps their dogs..." (not previously printed).

Already at this early stage Karen Blixen seems to have seen Denys Finch Hatton rather clearly, but this does not keep her from loving and admiring him unconditionally, or from entering into a love affair which many have sought to investigate.

"...In a love affair search and investigation is an absurdity, and unseemly" Karen Blixen writes in Tales of Two Old Gentlemen. A love affair can be analysed to death, and analysis is completely futile when it comes to other people's relationships.

In a letter to her mother, who had been somewhat worried about her oldest daughter's marriage, Karen Blixen wrote:

"On the whole, I don't think that anyone can evaluate the relationship between man and wife....one never sees the intimacy and sincerity which emerge when the two are alone, and yet this is of a far greater importance". (11th June, 1917).

Denys Finch Hatton had no other home in Africa than the farm, Blixen writes in Out of Africa. The letters contain information about his coming and going after 1919. Karen Blixen is in Denmark from November 1919 to November 1920 when she returns to Africa with Thomas Dinesen. In April 1921, Karen Blixen's uncle, Aage Westenholz,
arrives in Africa to settle the financial disorder of the farm which was partly due to Bror Blixen's disastrous mismanagement, and partly due to the fact that the place had been farmed out for a period of about two years. 

The first indication of correspondence from Denys Finch Hatton is a letter dated March 25th, 1922, in which Karen Blixen writes that she has received a letter from him saying that he will arrive at the end of April, but the letter from Denys is not extant. It is presumably around this time that Denys becomes a permanent resident on the farm. We have much information from 1922 and 1923 to the effect that he lived there, and on March 15, 1924, Blixen writes that "Denys lives here at present and I have never in my life been as happy as I am now".

However, on April 1st she writes that Denys has gone to England on a day's notice, due to his mother's illness, and the following letter, sent from Mombassa, must be from 1924.

19. March (1924?)

"Dear Tania,

Goodbye - I settled after all I ought to go home and I have managed to squeeze into the Llanstephan. Goodbye and thank you for so many pleasant days when I was so bad tempered.

Denys"

This letter gives us the first hint of the depressions from which Denys Finch Hatton
occasionally suffered, a fact which Karen Blixen in no way conceals in Out of Africa. When his letters are quoted in full, it is first and foremost because quoting out of context very often betrays the tenor of the letter. Furthermore, it can be difficult to decide what is significant or not. It will always be based on a subjective estimate which may prove unfortunate in the light of later information. Consequently, all the letters from Denys Finch Hatton are included in this article, and all are quoted in full. 

Denys Finch Hatton's mother died on 20th April 1924 and he stayed in England until
November 1924. We have no other letters from this period. Karen Blixen writes:

"I had a letter from Denys once, but haven't heard anything since and don't expect to, either, as I think he is a bad correspondent". (27th April, 1924)

She may have been right in this, and in more than one way. Already at this stage Karen Blixen was unsure about their relationship, an uncertainty she would never escape, although it did not change her feelings for him.

In the same letter to Thomas Dinesen she writes:

"I hope to see him (Denys) again in this life, but I don't know when he returns." And later: "I think I am eternally bound to Denys, to love the ground on which he treads, to be excessively happy when he is here and to suffer more than death repeatedly when he goes away..." (3rd August 1924)

In November 1924, Denys Finch Hatton returned to Africa and met Ingeborg and Thomas Dinesen on the boat. Ingeborg Dinesen went home on January 13th, 1925, and from January 28th Denys stayed on the farm until he went on another safari on February 9th. On March 5th, 1925, Karen Blixen goes to Denmark where she stays until 25th December 1925. We have no letters to her from Denys Finch Hatton from this period.

On February 1st, 1926 Karen Blixen is back on the farm, Denys Finch Hatton is on a safari, but in March 1926 they are together, with minor interruptions, and Karen Blixen can write to her mother that she has nothing more to ask of life.

She is more open in a letter to Thomas Dinesen and confesses that she has "experienced an absolute bliss mixed with utter despair at the thought of Denys leaving so soon and the fear of never seeing him again" (3rd April 1926).

In that same letter she writes that she will not, and cannot live in this way, with Denys as her only purpose in life, "....I must be myself, be something in and of myself". She refuses to be an 'object', a statement which is repeated throughout her letters. 

In the following letter the date is slightly uncertain, but I believe that it is from 12th
April 1926, written just after Denys Finch Hatton left for England. Karen Blixen has borrowed his car and, as it appears from the letters from 1926, he intends to bring "another Hudson out". Blixen borrowed this car, too, when he was out on safari.

It is an amusing letter because it reveals the fact that Denys Finch Hatton was well acquainted with Blixen's sometimes impatient temperament, and he does not want her to take it out on his car. She, however, would not be corrected. The entire letter is crossed out. Only the note about Kamau (Denys Finch Hatton's servant) has been framed as being of importance.

12th.

"Keyword "Denys" (Also for spare lock inside tool box)

Dear Tania,

A line to say that there is in the car a tool which fits the sparking plugs of Major Dickinson's Buick (Kamau knows it), will you let him have it sometime? It is no good for the Hudson. Don't drive fast when the car is cold: The red should be up to the lower edge of the white circle in the thermometer.

Don't force your gears in if you miss them: start again. Flo (Martin) is very good with gears. Be very careful not to go into reverse from 1st speed - it is right opposite and can easily be done especially if the 1st. gear sticks as you come out of it. You may find it difficult to get into first gear when you start. If so get into neutral and let the clutch in and accelerate slightly and try again. Flo will show you this.

- I will write again more about the car, but I send this in haste about the gears: they are so important if you want the car to run nicely and not get strained by forcing gears. - Always let your clutch in smoothly. Otherwise you strain all the transmission from driving shaft to back axle - and the engine as well. 

Eustace telegraphs that you are eligible for election to Muthaiga (country club) so I am
telegraphing to say that I will propose you.

Denys.

PS If Kamau torokas (Swahili: runs off) or you sack him inform Safariland where he is written on and where he draws 30/-p.m. from me. You are to give him 10/- and posho."

(30/- p.m.: 30 shilling per month. Posho: maize).

Most of the letters in the archives are from 1926 when Karen Blixen thought that she was expecting Denys Finch Hatton's child. She mentions this herself in a letter to Thomas Dinesen from 5th September 1926, and this sheds light on the identity of 'Daniel'.

The tone of voice with which they both refer to Daniel indicates a previous discussion about the name of a child, if such should be born. According to the British peerage, Daniel is a frequent name in the Finch Hatton family. 

Thurman quotes a cable from 21st May 1926 from Denys Finch Hatton: "Strongly urge you to cancel Daniel's visit", and she continues: "Tania replied - that cable is missing - to which Denys countered: "Received your wire and my reply etc. (Thurman,
A: p.208, D: p.270).

The cable first quoted by Thurman is not to be found in the archives under the specification she lists. There is only one cable from 1926 and it bears the date of the cable which Thurman quotes first:

Postmarked Nairobi 21. May 1926 (sent from London)

LCO Baroness Blixen, Postoffice Box 223, Nairobi

"Reference your cable and my reply please do as you like about Daniel as I should welcome him if I could offer partnership but this is impossible - stop - you will I know consider your mother's views.

Denys".

On the back of this telegram Karen Blixen has written her reply in pencil:

"LCO Denys Finch Hatton, Traditions. London (Traditions is the telegram address for Conservative Club)

Thanks cables never meant ask assistance/permission - consent only.

Tania"

Karen Blixen writes 'cables' which might indicate that she has received two cables and only answered the last one, but the contents of the first cable quoted by Thurman cannot be verified, as her reference as to its listing is incorrect.

Denys writes "partnership". This is the first piece of information as to the importance of finances to their relationship. Denys Finch Hatton was not a wealthy man. It appears that the safaris enabled him to maintain the life he preferred and this did not include the responsibility of a child and of the economy of the farm. In the next telegram from Denys Finch Hatton he feels 'rather depressed':

"Tania,

Here are a few pictures - I will write to you properly soon: I am rather depressed and
could wish myself back at Ngong. I want your news. What of Daniel? I would have liked it but I saw it being very difficult for you.

Denys.

PTO I am buying a Hudson with a body which shuts up everywhere to keep this icy climate out. I may bring it out with me. I hope to get away by September."

Karen Blixen does not reply.

The next letter from Denys Finch Hatton is undated, but presumably from July 1926.
Nikitina is the ballet dancer Anita Nikitina who danced in Diaghileff's Russian ballets and the ballet in question appears to be "Les Biches" (The House of Party). Anita Nikitina performed in this ballet at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in July 1926.

Undated.

Dear Tania,

I send you a picture, a piece of music and a book (chiefly to prevent the glass from being broken in the frame).

The music is for a dance in a Lesbian ballet: and is danced by a very pretty little creature Nikitina on the point of her toes at a stilted walking pace. 

She enters just as the young ladies of the party are being rather attracted by the antics of 3 young men, but after her appearance they have no chance in spite of their frenetic efforts to retrieve the situation by some gymnastic dancing to the "unacceptable" motive No. 62. The music is full of humour and raises many recollections. Keep the Egyptian book.

Denys".

Karen Blixen still does not reply.

Then follows another letter from Denys Finch Hatton. He has heard nothing from Karen Blixen. He refuses to face the true reason, but seems to think that he may have addressed his letters incorrectly. Perhaps this is the first time Karen Blixen has not been understanding when he has been 'bad tempered'.

September 12th 1926.

"Dear Tania,

I send you two catalogues of bulbs: with some marked which I have ordered to be sent to you. The address which I have given is

Baroness Blixen, c/o Mesrss. W.C. Hunter & Co., Nairobi Station, Kenya P.O.Box 96.

The reason is that I cannot remember whether your box is 223 or 332: I think 223 - but as you have never answered any of the letters which I have sent you I may be wrong. I think that daffodils & crocus will look nice in your wood if they decide to grow at all. I am by way of coming out in the French boat "Bernadine St. Pierre"
leaving Marseilles on the 13th October. But I may not be able to get away by then: if not I shall come in a German "Tanganyika" sailing 25 October. I shall be glad to see Ngong and your charming self again. Those sunsets at Ngong have an atmosphere of rest and content about them which I never realise anywhere else. I believe I could die happily enough at sunset at Ngong, looking up the hills, with all their lovely colours fading out above the darkening belt of the near forest. Soon they will be velvet black against the silver fading sky - black as the buffaloes which now come pushing softly out of the bush high up under the breasts of the hills to feed with sweet breath unafraid upon the open grass of the night.

I am much looking forward to seeing you again Tania. You ought have given me something of your news - nothing - no word even of Daniel -

I am bringing out another Hudson, but with a permanently closed top - I want to be at the coast for a few days - I am determined to get a piece of land there of which I know and to build a small bungalow so that we can visit the sea from time to time. It is a nice place and will be right away from anyone else. Do not tell of this.

I have been to Scotland for 3 weeks when I had lovely weather and some good grouse shooting - I visited old Johnnie, but his grouse were disappointing. I came back here to see if I could be of any use to my father who is now moving out of his home. But I find that in spite of his being very unwell he insists upon doing everything himself as long as he can stagger around: so that all I can do is to stand around like the French
clown at a circus. So as I have plenty to do myself before leaving England, I am going off to London tomorrow. The atmosphere here is very depressing and I shall be glad to get away from it. 

I am going over to Paris for a few days to choose some wine for Muthaiga and if possible to get a cook. Then I want to go to Tunis for a week but I find there is great difficulty in getting accommodation on the ship across. Some friends of mine have I believe a very lovely house there and I should like to have a look round that part of
Africa. After that I want to go to Rome for a week; and so to catch any boat for 17 days prison. Send me a letter c/o the honble. Sheikh Ali bin Salim G.M.G. The Liwali of the Coast Mombassa. To say whether you are alive and well, or ill and dying. How is Farah. Where is Bille (Bilea, Denys Finch Hatton's servant), and has he learned to drive your Hudson yet. Is Kamau still with you, or has he stolen all the tools and torokaed (Swahili: run off).

I must talk to my father - Goodnight Goodnight -

Denys.