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Photo of Isak Dinesen, real name Baroness Karen Blixen, at 75. From Estilo Cool

We just read James Salter’s Paris Review interview from 1993. He mentions the Danish writer Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa and protagonist of the movie starring Meryl Streep (“I had a farm in Africa…” We love Meryl, but Isak Dinesen is more fascinating than the movie).

INTERVIEWER

I noticed Out of Africa on your desk. What did you mean when you praised Isak Dinesen “for the courage she had in what she omitted” from that book?

SALTER

I take that book to be a model. As you know, she had a husband who gave her syphilis; she had a childhood, a marriage; she had a love affair; one senses—I haven’t read her biography—a tremendous amount happened to her. None of it is in this story, Out of Africa. Her husband is briefly mentioned, so is her father. So are many other figures. One has a very strong feeling about this woman and her life. You feel you know her. And yet she was not obliged, so to speak, to lift her skirts, display the sheets. I admire that. I thought it would be interesting to write a book that tells some important things but doesn’t bother to tell every detail.

This reminded us that we have a couple of Isak Dinesen books in our library: Seven Gothic Tales and Last Tales. (We first heard of her in The Catcher in the Rye. She was one of the authors Holden wished he could telephone.)

We had not read them in ages, so we picked up Seven Gothic Tales. It took us several pages to get used to her enigmatic, intentionally archaic style, but now we are completely mesmerized.

We copy passages by writers we admire for the vicarious thrill of writing them.