This article was first published August 1, 2017.

Karen Blixen (1885-1962) was born Karen Dinesen and came from a wealthy farming/merchant family in Denmark. She married the Baron Bror Blixen after following him to Kenya to start a 6000-acre farm near the Ngong Hills outside Nairobi. Although the marriage did not last, the farm, known as M’Bogani, became the focus of her life and writing for the next seventeen years while she remained in Kenya.

The book Out of Africa, originally published under the name Karen Blixen as well as under her pen name Isak Dinesen, recounts events on the farm and her observations of African customs and interactions with white colonists. Originally published in Denmark and the United Kingdom, it gained recognition after its U.S. publication debut and selection as a Book-of-the-Month Club choice. Readers’ imaginations were captured with the first line: “I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”

The book is divided into five sections. The first two sections focus on the Africans who lived on the farm or did business with the farm, while the third section describes the local characters and visitors to the farm. Section four is a collection of short vignettes and stories, each describing a particular event or happening on the farm, and the final section details the loss of Blixen’s farm and friends and her departure back to Denmark.

In addition to Out of Africa, we have four other volumes by Blixen including the short-story collection Seven Gothic Tales. Come join us and proof a few pages to help us bring more of these public domain titles to Canada. More information about volunteering is available on our companion site Distributed Proofreaders Canada.