Daily Archives for: March 10th, 2018

Isak Dinesen, Author of Out of Africa

By | On March 10, 2018 | Updated January 31, 2023 | Comments (2)

Isak Dinesen (April 17, 1885 – September 7, 1962) was a Danish author best known for Out of Africa (1937), a now-controversial memoir of her life as the owner of a coffee plantation in colonial Kenya of the 1920s.

She’s also considered a master of short-form fiction.  One of her best known collections is Seven Gothic Tales, and a standout short story (turned film) is “Babette’s Feast” (1958).

Though admired as a master storyteller, contemporary reconsiderations of her work shed light on the inherent racism in her portrayals of the Africans she lived amongst during the colonial period. This issue will be discussed later in this brief biography. A complex personality, Dinesen’s place in modern literature continues to be debated. Read More→

Categories: Author biography Comments: (2)

Madeleine L’Engle and the Years of A Wrinkle in Time’s Rejection

By | On March 10, 2018 | Updated March 25, 2026 | Comments (2)

Pairing Madeleine L’Engle‘s middle-grade classic, A Wrinkle in Time,  with the concept of literary rejection might seem odd, given its iconic stature. But I would challenge anyone to come up with a story that better illustrates the fine line between rejection and acceptance than hers: 

“A Wrinkle in Time was almost never published. You can’t name a major publisher who didn’t reject it. When we’d run through forty-odd publishers, my agent sent it back. We gave up.”

Most editors thought it was too dark and complex for children. After some time, L’Engle made contact with John Farrar of Farrar Straus Giroux through a friend, and the rest is publishing history. Read More→

Categories: Literary Musings, Writing Advice from Classic Authors Comments: (2)