Out of Africa

by Karen Blixen

Published December 1964
This is an illustrated memoir of Karen Blixen's life in Kenya, where she ran a coffee plantation at Ngong, initially with her husband until their divorce in 1921, and then on her own until the collapse of the coffee market in 1931. Fully illustrated with contemporary paintings and photographs as well as drawings by a present-day Kenyan artist, the book is a portrait of day to day life on a struggling coffee plantation, eccentric European settlers, the Africans and the beauty and wildness of the land. "Out of Africa" was released as a feature film in 1985, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford and directed by Sydney Pollack. Other works by Karen Blixen published under her pen name Isak Dinesen include "Seven Gothic Tales", "The Angelic Avengers", "Winter's Tales", "Anecdotes of Destiny", "Shadows on the Grass", "Ehrengard" and a collection of her letters, "Letters from Africa".