Out of Africa.

DINESEN, Isak. [Karen Blixen].

Item Number: 143914

New York: Random House, 1938.

First American edition of the author’s masterpiece, a lyrical meditation of the years she lived in Kenya. Octavo, original half cloth. With an original autograph Christmas card signed by Karen Blixen laid in. Inscribed by Blixen inside the card, “With best wishes for a Happy Xmas and New Year from Tania Blixen” opposite a tipped in black-and-white photograph of her, and on the back of the card, “I was laureated at a literary diner last month and hope you will not think my too pretentious in sending you this picture.” Very good in a good dust jacket. The card is in near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco slipcase.

From 1914 to 1931, Danish aristocrat Baroness Karen Blixen owned and operated a coffee plantation in Kenya. After the plantation failed, she returned to Europe and began to write under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Out of Africa reads like a collection of stories in which she adheres to no strict chronology, gives no explanation of the facts of her life, and apologizes for nothing. Basis for the film bearing the same name, directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, which went on to win seven Academy Awards. Named by Modern Library as one of the 100 best non-fiction books of the twentieth century.