Den Afrikanske Farm [Out of Africa] by [Karen Christenze Dinesen, Baroness Blixen-Finecke, writing as:] DINESEN, Isak (1885-1962) - 1937

København [Copenhagen]: Gyldendalske Boghandel Nordisk Forlag, 1937. First Edition thus. Pictorial Wrappers. Fine. Text in Danish, translated from the English by the author. Tall, thick 8vo: 383pp. Original pictorial wrappers, title page printed in red and black, edges untrimmed. A superb example, with almost no signs of use, virtually pristine. Time 100. First Danish edition of Out of Africa and first edition to be published in the author's own language, following the English edition but preceding the American. Her second book, part novel, but mostly memoir of her 19 years in Africa—I had a farm, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. "In 1937, the notion of a Danish woman who would serve as head of a vast African coffee plantation seemed only slightly less exotic than the notion of one who might spend her life in the Ngong hills of Kenya among the Kikuyu and Maasai. 'Here at long last one was in a position not to give a damn for all conventions, here was a new kind of freedom,' wrote the divorced, fiercely independent Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke. Her memoir depicts the close relationships she fostered among the men who worked for her, giving African characters a complexity and dignity not found in other colonial texts. The occasional brutality and profound loss that characterize colonial life do not overshadow the serenity with which Blixen-Finecke writes, fostering wanderlust in anyone who reads her book." (Time 100) The Oscar-winning film (1985), starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, was based more on Judith Thurman's biography of Dinesen than on the book, in which Dinesen's romance with Denys Finch-Hatton is mentioned only obliquely. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).