Books

First US edition, first printing, inscribed by the author above the epigraph to the pianist "Chester Page, from Isak Dinesen". This copy was signed on 18 March 1959 during Blixen's only visit to the United States. Inscribed copies of Out of Africa are distinctly uncommon, with no copies appearing at auction for 20 years. Chester Page (1929-) studied music at the Mannes School in New York City, continuing his career in the city. He was a close friend to several major literary figures, including Marianne Moore, Bryher, Elizabeth Bishop, and Djuna Barnes, his correspondence with whom is held at the University of Maryland. Page wrote of his meeting with Blixen in his Memoirs of a Charmed Life in New York (2007): "Isak Dinesen, who reigned from her mysterious aerie in Denmark, created a sensation when she came to New York in 1959... [She] seemed larger than life to an impressionable young man, as I was then" (Page, p. 3). Page saw Blixen speak at the Poetry Center of the YMHA on 11 February, and met her on 18 March while accompanying Marianne Moore, who had dined with the author on 9 February (Hoy, p. 91). It was in March that Page had this book signed: "Isak Dinesen signed a book for me. I left the book by permission from Clara, her companion, and retrieved it the following day. The pristine white tissue paper I had enclosed it in was gone, replaced by an enormous brown grocery bag, folded to fit the book. A note of thanks for the roses I had sent was inserted" (Page, p. 41). Blixen's visit did indeed cause a sensation, not least due to her affectation of eating only oysters and grapes and drinking just champagne. Blixen was visited by a range of dignitaries and authors during her trip, which lasted from January to April, including Gloria Vanderbilt, John Steinbeck, Cecil Beaton, Pearl Buck (who travelled for two days to meet her), and Marilyn Monroe, whose meeting was arranged by Carson McCullers. Out of Africa was published in Britain in 1937. It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1985, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. READ MORE Octavo. Original black quarter cloth, spine lettered in gilt, orange cloth sides, illustration to front cover in gilt, top edge green. With dust jacket. Title page printed in green and black. Book of the Month Club review loosely inserted. Minor rubbing; jacket spine a touch browned, small chips to edges and front flap fold of jacket, not price-clipped, a couple of short closed tears: a near-fine copy in very good jacket. Cyrus Hoy (ed.), Marianne Moore: Letters to Hildegarde Watson, Volume XXIX, Summer 1976; Chester Page, Memoirs of a Charmed Life in New York, 2007.

Out of Africa is Karen Blixen's poignant memoir that details her life on a coffee plantation in Kenya. Through lyrical prose, Blixen reflects on the beauty, challenges, and friendships experienced during her stay from 1914 to 1931.