[Archive]: Karen Blixen s Letters to Eugene Walter, 1956-62; together with Letters by Blixen s Personal Secretary Clara Svendsen, 1956-64

BLIXEN, Karen (Pen names: Isak Dinesen, Tania Blixen); Clara Svendsen and Eugene Walter

Published by [Denmark; Italy, 1956

An important collection of letters by Karen Blixen, best known for *Out of Africa* and *Babette s Feast* published under her pen name Isak Dinesen. The letters were written to Alabama-born Renaissance man Eugene Walter, then living in Rome and editing the influential literary journal *Botteghe Oscure*. The collection consists of 18 signed letters totaling 29 pages by Blixen, together with five autograph cards. Additionally, there are 10 letters totaling 16 pages by Blixen s companion and personal secretary Clara Svendsen, together with six autograph cards. Svendsen travelled with Blixen to Rome in 1956, where they met with Walter for an interview with Blixen published in *The Paris Review*: "The Art of Fiction XIV: Isak Dinesen" (Issue 14, Autumn 1956). The collection also contains Blixen s original corrected typescript of the interview and three of Michael Batterberry s original pen & ink sketches of Blixen made during the interview; together with Walter s typescript copy of a play he wrote for Karen and Clara during their time together in Rome: "Tania-Tania and Clara, Too! A marionette play by Eugene Walter." Also included is a handmade illustrated program for a concert given "in honor of Isak Dinesen" when she and Clara had returned to Rome in November 1957, along with a portrait photograph of Blixen presumably taken by the American model and photographer Jane Sprague, who was present at the interview with Batterberry. Among the autograph cards are real photo snapshots of Blixen and views of her estate at Rungstedlund in Denmark. Most of the letters are typed and include the original mailing envelopes. A few intermittent minor stains, near fine overall. A lively and revealing cache of letters and associated material, documenting the final six years of Karen Blixen s remarkable life. Considered several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Blixen did not receive it because the judges were reportedly concerned about showing favoritism to Scandinavian writers. As referenced in the letters, Blixen at this time was at work on several short story collections, including *Last Tales* (1957) and *Anecdotes of Destiny* (1958). The correspondence begins in March, 1956 with Blixen replying to Walter s request to publish "a manuscript of mine for your *Botteghe* … I should much like to appear in the review, but the things that I might have for it are all to come into my next book …" She proposes to meet in Rome to "talk matters over" which turned into the occasion for Walter s *Paris Review* interview, and the beginning of their enduring close relationship. Back in Denmark in June she writes: "… I want to embrace you in happy gratitude of all you did for me and Clara … My lovely stay in Rome would never have been the same if you had not been there … I need your arm for up and down stairs, your shoulder to rest my head on, and your charming gift of imagination to fall in with my own fantasies. I shall not forget you, and I beg you too to remember that together we have salted sweet hours, made the years rewind, eaten all the ripened heart of life, and made a luscious pickle of the rind … ." In the next letter she encloses her 17-page annotated typescript copy of the interview, present in this collection, in which Blixen revises her account of the circumstances that took her to Africa in 1913: "Many thanks for your letter and the interview … I am returning it to you quickly … I have, as you see, corrected a few things, as in p. 13 … You want me to write in a line or so in the place about Africa. I take it you mean the passage on p. 8, so I have altered my answer to you there, it should go as follows: When I was a young girl it was very far from my thoughts to go to Africa … ." After the interview, with their friendship established, Blixen continues to write lively, informative letters to Walter, in which she frequently refers to several short stories that she is working on and those which she has sent to Walter both to review criticall. Seller Inventory # 576826

Bibliographic Details

Title: [Archive]: Karen Blixen s Letters to Eugene ...
Publisher: [Denmark; Italy
Publication Date: 1956
Condition: Near Fine
Signed: Signed by Author(s)