"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song for me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?" - Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa (Karen Blixen)
The
women I admire the most are those who despite convention, the times,
and restrictions placed upon their sex still managed to defy society and
carve out a life on their own terms, passions, and
secret longings... lives filled with adventure, exploration, and
self-expression.
Women like Danish author Karen von Blixen who published her account of living in Kenya in the book, Out of Africa, published under the pen name Isak Dinesen in 1937. The book is a recollection of Blixen's life on her beloved coffee plantation in the Ngong Hills, as well as a tribute to those who touched her life there. After she lost her plantation in 1931, Blixen returned to Denmark and embarked on a writing career that lasted until her death in 1962.
