If you've read Out of Africa, or seen the movie, then you probably understand when I say Karen Blixen was probably the best promotion that the African tourism industry has ever gotten. The Danish author, through that publication about her life in Africa, and Kenya in particular, captured the romance, adventure and delight of the African wilderness. Yet most people know very little about her.
In 1913 Karen Dinesen, born and raised in Denmark, became engaged to her second-cousin, the Swedish Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, after a failed love affair with his brother. The couple moved to Kenya, where in early 1914 they used family money to establish a coffee plantation, hiring African workers, predominantly the Kikuyu tribes people who lived on the farmlands at the time of their arrival.
About the couple's early life in Africa, Karen Blixen later wrote:
