The power of Aries

In 1913, Karen Blixen left her childhood home in Denmark to live on and manage her family's coffee farm in the vast wilderness of East Africa. Blixen recorded her daily life there in letters to her family and, after returning to Denmark, wove her experiences into fiction that she published under the name Isak Dinesen. This body of work revealed not only Blixen's keen insight into human nature but her gift as a storyteller as well. In The Power of Aries: Myth and Reality in Karen Blixen's Life, Anders Westenholz likens Blixen's creative powers to the power invested in the ram, the symbol of Aries, the sign of the zodiac under which Blixen was born. The author asserts that the power Blixen possessed -- or was possessed by -- was so strong that it influenced her personal relationships, her writing, and her ability to weather severe adversity in the 20 years she spent in Africa. Westenholz, the son of a cousin to Karen Blixen and the grandnephew of Blixen's uncle, Aage Westenholz, who provided the primary financing for the family's African enterprise, includes in his study previously unpublished correspondence between Blixen and and her uncle. These letters illuminate Blixen's relationship with her family and friends and reveal her determination to succeed, despite constant financial hardship. Westenholz also asserts that it was not the ultimate loss of the farm or the loss of her friend Denys Finch Hatton that made a writer of Blixen; rather, it was through her friendships and her occupation as manager of the farm that she developed her creative power. In this work, Westenholz also offers an examination of Blixen's snobbishness, which he maintains was an essential part of her personality. He recalls events in her life that account for this character trait and describes its manifestation in her writing and her personal life. Westenholz concludes his study by addressing the myth that writers, in order to reach artistic greatness, must renounce "real life." According to Westenholz, Blixen did much to perpetuate the myth that she had to isolate herself from life in order to write. However, he believes that for Blixen, life was art. He lays to rest many of the myths that surround this enigmatic writer -- both those that she herself created and those that others helped sustain. He draws a different and fascinating portrait of an extraordinarily strong personality, a woman who despite great adversity realized a dream far beyond reasonable expectations. - Jacket flap.