On April 17, 1885, Dinesen was born Chris-tence Dinesen in Rungsted, Denmark. Her love of painting prompted her to study art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where she developed an eye for landscape details—a talent that would be reflected later in her writing.

She continued her studies in Oxford, Paris, and Rome and began to write short fiction and novels. In 1907 a literary magazine in Denmark published her short story, 'The Hermits," under the pseudonym Osceola.

After a failed love affair with her cousin, Hans Blixen-Finecke, Christentze (she preferred to be called Karen), announced to her family that she planned to many Hans's twin brother Bror, a big-game hunter and writer.

The couple married and moved to Kenya, where, with financial aid from her family, they purchased six thousand acres of land. Her marriage to Bror did not survive (they were divorced in...