Karen and Denys

The first time I saw 'Out of Africa', I fell asleep; the second time I was entranced. Robert Redford, minus the mustache I'd seen him with last in 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', was simply dreamy, and I could empathize with his character Denys Finch Hatton's freedom-loving philosophy too, having just wriggled out of a stifling relationship myself. This said, I found the Baroness Karen Blixen, played by Meryl Streep, particularly admirable too – how could one not admire a woman who, having just lost her Coffee Farm and thereby her entire fortune, still had the gumption to say to a visitor, "Well, I'm out of coffee, but I can still offer you some tea"? I'm not sure those are the exact words, but to that tune. Sheer grace under pressure. Of course I knew it was a movie and probably the script-writer had thought up those lines, but they were profoundly uplifting anyway, and I had to find out about the real people behind the film. I'm pleased to say that they were no less impressive.

Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton, who met, loved and parted against the magnificent back-drop of British East Africa (as Kenya was known then), were a disparate yet similar couple. Born just two years apart, Karen on 12 April 1885 on the Family Estate of Rungstedlund in Denmark and Denys on 24 April 1887 at Haverholme Estate, near the village of Ewerby, in Lincolnshire, England, they were both headstrong, restless spirits who did not really fit into the society into which they had been born. Karen, the second daughter of a wealthy, aristocratic father Wilhelm Dinesen and a business-class mother Ingeborg Westenholz, had always longed to be accepted in aristocratic circles, and yet at the same time could not reconcile with the social conventions of the period, especially regarding women; Denys, the second son of the Earl of Winchelsea and his wife Anne, bore his aristocratic lineage lightly, without any undue fuss, and was more interested in leading a life of adventure in Africa. Karen was to become world-famous for her books written under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen; Denys, before his untimely death, had earned himself a strong reputation as a Hunter and Organizer of Safaris. Charming, highly intelligent, and very attractive, they had a wide-ranging and diverse circle of friends and acquaintances, and most of these people later remembered them with much affection and admiration and very little bitterness.

When Karen arrived in Africa, she was twenty-eight and about to embark into matrimony with her second cousin from the paternal side, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke. He was a year younger, was from the fast aristocratic set that she had aspired to, and was the twin brother of Baron Hans Blixen-Finecke with whom she had years earlier, at the age of twenty-four, been in love. So far Karen had not been very successful in the sort of life she wanted – she had not fit in well with the aristocratic circles; although talented, she had not managed to carve out a career either as an artist or a writer; her love affair with Hans had come to naught and caused her much heart-ache and depression; also, although she loved her family and was close to them, there was a sense of being hemmed in by the strict, moralistic atmosphere. Africa was her chance to start all over again. She left Denmark on 2 December 1913 to join Bror who had gone ahead and they got married on the same day that she arrived in East Africa. Together they were going to manage the Coffee Farm M'Bagathi, which had been funded by her Family Firm, and they went to live on this farm in January 1914. Later they moved to a larger farm called M'Bogani near the Ngong Hills on the outskirts of Nairobi. This is the farm mentioned in her book and in the film 'Out of Africa'. It was a happy start, but later both the marriage and the management of the Farm foundered. Bror Blixen, while a cheerful, courageous, and likable chap, was not exactly reliable either as a husband or as a manager. Only few months into the marriage, he had given his wife syphilis, from which she recovered, but the fear of which was to haunt her for the rest of her life, and he made a veritable mess of the Farm Finances, borrowing left and right for personal purposes and leaving his wife to foot the bills. By 1921 they had formally separated and the divorce became final in 1925. Bror was to remarry and later die in a car-crash. Karen, meanwhile, was left with a failing farm – and Denys Finch Hatton.

Denys Finch Hatton, thanks to his lineage and his charismatic personality, had had a pretty easy time growing up. The favorite of his mother and all his peers at first Eton and then Brasenose College, Oxford, he was renowned as a humorous raconteur, an excellent mimic, and an outstanding sportsman, playing cricket, football and golf – he won three Golfing Blues at Oxford and captained the University Team against Cambridge in his final year. He came to British East Africa in 1911 when he was twenty-four, and became so enamored that he at once bought land in the Rift Valley. However, with his chronic dislike of tying himself down, he, instead of farming and settling on it, rented it out and spent his time hunting. When the First World War began, Denys entered the Army and first became the A.D.C. to Major-General Hoskins in British East Africa and then was transferred to the Middle East. He wanted to become a War Pilot, but a foot injury ended that plan and he was sent to British East Africa to recoup. Before returning to active duty in Egypt after his recovery, on 5 April 1918 at the Muthaiga Club, he first met Karen Blixen; he had probably already known her husband Bror. He picked up the acquaintance upon after the war and the three of them soon became very good friends. But Denys shortly afterwards sold his farm and left Africa, and did not not return until 1922. By this time Karen had separated from her husband, and she and Denys now became romantically involved. After her divorce he moved in with her.

It was a passionate but rocky relationship. They were both headstrong and liked doing things their own way. Denys was often away tending to the Safari Business he had set up, while Karen was up to her ears in sorting out the Farm Finances and managing its daily running. Karen wanted to have a child; Denys didn't. They began drifting apart. In 1928, they had a major disagreement over Denys' including Bror Blixen in the Royal Safaris he had arranged for the visiting Prince of Wales – as Bror had remarried there was some awkwardness about presenting Karen as the Baroness Blixen. Finally, the Financiers back in Denmark lost patience with the inept, profitless handling of the Coffee Farm and decided to sell it. Karen asked Denys to marry her, but he refused and so she had no choice but to return to Denmark. There was no other profession for her in Africa and, with the loss of her Farm, she had been rendered penniless. A few months before her departure, on 14 May 1931, Denys was killed when his plane crashed.

Karen, grief-stricken and shattered, returned home to the family estate in Denmark after nearly eighteen years in Africa, and eventually rebuilt her life and became the much-feted, world-famous writer of excellent, imaginative books like 'Out of Africa'(1938), 'Shadows on the Grass', 'Seven Gothic Tales'(published in 1934) and others. Unable to forget Denys, she never had another romantic relationship. She died at the age of 77 in Denmark in 1962.