Karen Blixen - Legacy and Works

Legacy and Works

The Nairobi suburb that stands on the land where Blixen farmed coffee is now named Karen. Blixen herself declared in her later writings that "the residential district of Karen" was "named after me". And Blixen's biographer, Judith Thurman, was told by the developer who bought the farm from the family corporation that he planned to name the district after Blixen.

Blixen was known to her friends not as "Karen" but as "Tania." The family corporation that owned her farm was incorporated as the "Karen Coffee Company". The chairman of the board was her uncle, Aage Westenholz, who may have named the company after his own daughter Karen. However, the developer seems to have named the district specifically for its famous author/farmer, not for the name of her company.

There is a Karen Blixen Coffee House and Museum in the district of Karen, set near Blixen's former home.

Karen Blixen's portrait was featured on the front of the Danish 50-krone banknote, 1997 series, from 7 May 1999 to 25 August 2005.

Some of Blixen's works were published posthumously, including tales previously removed from earlier collections and essays she wrote for various occasions.

• The Hermits (1907, published in a Danish journal under the name Osceola)
• The Ploughman (1907, published in a Danish journal under the name Osceola)
• The de Cats Family (1909, published in Tilskueren)
• The Revenge of Truth (1926, published in Denmark)
• Seven Gothic Tales (1934 in USA, 1935 in Denmark)
• Out of Africa (1937 in Denmark and England, 1938 in USA)
• Winter's Tales (1942)
• The Angelic Avengers (1946)
• Last Tales (1957)
• Anecdotes of Destiny (1958) (including Babette's Feast)
• Shadows on the Grass (1960 in England and Denmark, 1961 in USA)
• Ehrengard (posthumous 1963, USA)
• Carnival: Entertainments and Posthumous Tales (posthumous 1977, USA)
• Daguerreotypes and Other Essays (posthumous 1979, USA)
• On Modern Marriage and Other Observations (posthumous 1986, USA)
• Letters from Africa, 1914–1931 (posthumous 1981, USA)
• Karen Blixen in Danmark: Breve 1931–1962 (posthumous 1996, Denmark)