Too Close to the Sun (47 page)

“all wild with the”: OoA,
251.

“the ache for those”:
W. S. Churchill,
The World Crisis: The Aftermath,
1929, 19.

“The war did not”:
Parsons, ed.,
Alan Parsons’ Book,
88.

“Everything I had known”:
Siegfried Sassoon,
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man,
1928, 294.

“unsociable and shy”:
Thurman,
Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen,
232.

“Nothing exciting has taken”: Leader,
October 9, 1920.

“a sort of futuristic idea”:
Ibid., October 11, 1919.

“where erstwhile we were”:
Ibid., January 10, 1920.

“What is Bolshevism?”:
Ibid., February 21, 1920.

“all the ghastly lozenges”:
GFH (Toby), Diary, March 4, 1922, Northampton.

“And yet I really”:
Undated poem handwritten by DFH, private collection.

“pretty exciting”:
GFH (Toby), Diary, December 30, 1921, Northampton.

“Tanne sat as if ”:
Dinesen,
My Sister, Isak Dinesen,
68.

“I will never be”: Letters,
58.

“It seems likely that”:
Dinesen,
My Sister, Isak Dinesen,
59.

“She couldn’t do any”:
Thomas Dinesen to Knud W. Jensen,
Karen Blixen—Storyteller
(subtitled Danish film by Christian Braad Thomsen).

“a Bolshevik”: Letters,
138.

“And they were right”:
Dinesen,
My Sister, Isak Dinesen,
76.

“There is so much”: Letters,
108.

“the greatest sorrow in…but I do not”:
Ulf Aschan,
The Man Whom Women Loved,
New York, 1987, 63.

“Her species has become”: Daily Telegraph,
December 19, 1988.

“harassed her about it…By his vicious lies…for money and assistance”:
Anders Westenholz,
The Power of Aries,
Baton Rouge, 1987, 25.

“But she does have”: Letters,
131.

“Father understood me as”:
Ibid., 110.

“I have suffered all…person in the world”:
Ibid., 110–11.

“He has a great”:
Ibid., 139.

“subject to special kinds”: OoA,
244.

“bad temper”:
DFH to KB, March 19 [1924], KBA.

CHAPTER 7. DANIEL

“He never did but”: OoA,
158.

“door handles both inside”: Kenya Observer,
February 10, 1923.

“sucking the lifeblood of ”: Leader,
December 20, 1919.

“I think the Government”:
Ibid., January 18, 1919.

“India for the Indians”:
Ibid., August 14, 1920.

“the interests of the”:
white paper, “Indians in Kenya,” 1923, quoted in Huxley,
White Man’s Country,
vol. 2, 275.

“worn-down and frustrated”:
Introduction to Peter Beard, ed.,
Longing for Darkness: Kamante’s Tales from Out of Africa,
New York, 1975 (no page numbers).

“I would be so”: Letters,
146.

“ready to burst when”:
Ibid., 147.

“near to the sun”: OoA,
15.

“Bedar is on his”:
Ibid., 146.

“starved of talk”:
Ibid., 117.

“Let us drive as”:
Ibid., 248.

“as if courteously making”:
Ibid., 160.

“I would like Beethoven”:
Ibid.

“That such a person”: Letters,
171.

“He was happy on”: OoA,
159.

“never reliable, but in”:
Ibid., 26.

“Swahili as She Is”: Leader,
February 14, 1920, and elsewhere.

“our house…our horses”: SotG,
288.

“so fat he had”:
Beard, ed.,
Longing for Darkness,
chapter 12 (no page numbers).

“it was as if ”: OoA,
155.

“It would be reasonable”: Letters,
165.

“No one knows how”:
Ibid., 168.

“There have been many”:
Ibid.

“This time I mean”:
Westenholz,
The Power of Aries,
30.

“I think we have”: Letters,
172.

“not your run-of-the-mill”:
Introduction to
WwtN,
vii.

“I really do believe”: Letters,
194.

“the most wonderful being”:
Ibid., 196.

“Goodbye…and thank you”:
DFH to KB, March 19 [1924], KBA.

“I believe that for”: Letters,
224.

“I’d give most of the Rue”:
DFH to KR, April 21, 1924, LoC.

“Rammed a thorn in”:
GFH (Toby), Diary, May 23, 1924, family collection.

“It is sad to”:
DFH to KR, June 17, 1924, LoC.

“Tiny, are you asleep…It was always a…Read the Bible”:
Michael Williams, conversations with the author, 2003–2004.

“I have often found”:
DFH to KR, June 17, 1924, LoC.

“I am so sorry”:
GFH (Toby), Diary, October 15, 1924, family collection.

“All sorrows can be”:
Else Brundbjerg,
Isak Dinesen: Karen Blixen, Woman, Heretic and Artist,
Charlottenlund, 1997, 20.

“without the support of ”:
Karen Blixen,
On Modern Marriage and Other Observations,
1987, 56.

“which takes the form”: Letters,
270–71.

“the love relationship could”:
Olga Anastasia Pelensky,
Isak Dinesen: The Life and Imagination of a Seducer,
Athens (Ohio), 1991, 90.

“I do not think”: Letters,
321.

“so little sexual”:
Ibid.

“a mirthful forbearance with”:
Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen),
Last Tales,
1957, 96 (page number refers to Penguin Classics edition, 2001).

“sweat and stable”:
Ibid., 98.

“slightly moist”:
Ibid.

“mystically she had become”:
Ibid., 96.

“I sure reckon I”:
DFH to KR, March 21, 1924, LoC.

“and yet he came”:
Le Comte de Janzé,
Vertical Land,
1928, 116.

“In those days people”:
Mary Lovell,
Straight on Till Morning,
1987, 72 (page number refers to Arena edition, 1988).

“a very clear inverse”:
Frank McLynn,
Hearts of Darkness,
1992, 187.

“You know that Denys”: Letters,
384.

“When you saw them”:
Allen,
The Wheel of Life,
34.

“Do you know Norman”:
This anecdote has been handed down the generations by many among Denys’s family and friends, in each case with a different name after “Do you know….” I have included it because it rings true; and William “Norman” Tod was a close friend of Denys’s at Eton.

“My rotten heart has”:
Berkeley Cole to John Cole, March 25 [1925], PRONI.

“a vista of success”:
GC to John Cole, March 3, 1925, PRONI.

“Funeral everything you all”:
Hugh Martin to John Cole, April 28, 1925, PRONI.

“The more I reflect”:
GC to John Cole, March 3, 1925, PRONI.

“nothing more to ask”: Letters,
242.

“I will not and”:
Ibid., 249.

“One has freedom and”:
Ibid., 270.

“The reason for my”:
Ibid., 281.

“Don’t drive fast when”:
DFH to KB, n.d., Karen Blixen Museum, Rungstedlund.

CLASS WAR SPLITS BRITAIN:
Daily Express,
May 1, 1926.

“The elderly Liberal leaders”:
A. J. Taylor,
English History 1914–1945,
Oxford, 1965, 320.

“Strongly urge you cancel”:
This cable, dated May 21, 1926, is quoted by Thurman in her biography
Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen
(246). She cites as her source the Karen Blixen Archive in Copenhagen. But the cable has vanished from the archive and my inquiries as to its whereabouts were not answered. It is inconceivable that a researcher as scrupulous as Thurman did not see and accurately transcribe this first cable, so I quote it here without fear of inaccuracy.

“Reference your cable and”:
DFH to KB, May 21, 1926, KBA.

“Thanks cables never meant”:
written on reverse of DFH to KB, May 21, 1926, KBA.

“I am rather depressed”:
Another document that has mysteriously vanished from the Karen Blixen Archive in Copenhagen. The telegram, dated June 15, is quoted in full in Brundbjerg,
Isak Dinesen: Karen Blixen, Woman, Heretic and Artist
(230). I believe this source to be reliable.

“the foul rag and”:
W. B. Yeats, “The Circus Animals’ Desertion,”
Last Poems,
1938.

“on sentimental grounds”:
GFH (Toby), Diary, August 1, 1925, Northampton.

“In spite of his”:
DFH to KB, September 12, 1926, KBA.

“I shall be glad”:
Ibid.

“so that we can”:
Ibid.

“to say whether you”:
Ibid.

“charming letter…I have got your”:
DFH to KB, September 23, 1926, KBA.

“to keep this icy”:
DFH to KB, June 15, n.y., KBA.

“Oh that I had”:
Iris Tree,
The Traveller and Other Poems,
New York, 1927.

“Men are cumbersome”:
Fielding,
The Rainbow Picnic,
101.

“17 days prison”:
DFH to KB, September 12, 1926, KBA.

“Homeward bound I feel”: Letters,
297.

“That man died at”: OoA,
160.

“Denys was a loveable”:
Trzebinski,
The Lives of Beryl Markham,
84.

“She was difficult, but”:
Thurman,
Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen,
234.

“Tanne liked to use”:
Pelensky,
Isak Dinesen: The Life and Imagination of a Seducer,
125.

“I hope we’re not…I wouldn’t mind”:
Aschan,
The Man Whom Women Loved,
97.

“She was double”:
Pelensky,
Isak Dinesen: The Life and Imagination of a Seducer,
125.

CHAPTER 8. STUNTING

“Denys could, like the”:
Mrs. Kit Taylor to Errol Trzebinski, June 30, 1975, RH.

“wish to transplant and”:
Evelyn Waugh,
Remote People,
1931, 140–41.

“They were a group”:
Aidan Hartley,
Literary Review,
April 2002.

“I had many a”:
R. E. Dear to Michael Williams, April 24, 1986, family collection.

“I bless you whenever”: Letters,
302.

“quite pleasant”:
DFH to KR, June 3, 1927, LoC.

“a wonderful road, rising”:
Ibid.

“They have a madman”:
Ibid.

“If I have ever”: Letters,
316.

“Do you know aught”:
DFH to KR, August 14, 1926, LoC.

“a walking encyclopedia…rattle”:
Frederick B. Patterson,
African Adventures,
New York, 1928, 8.

“Hatton…seemed eight feet”:
Ibid., 19.

“We waited for an”:
Ibid., 49.

“Oh…it just happened”:
Ibid., 9.

“I never knew two…I was aware of…clear steady eyes, with…He began to weave”:
Mrs. Kit Taylor to Errol Trzebinski, July 8, 1975, RH.

“miles of damn-all”:
Edward Paice,
Lost Lion of Empire,
2001, 33.

“zest”:
Patterson,
African Adventures,
58.

“a pandemonium of trumpetings”:
Ibid., 60.

“He looked v. peaceful”:
GFH (Toby), Diary, August 14, 1927, Northampton.

“Hatton was talking of…Till we meet again”:
Patterson,
African Adventures,
82.

“civilisation”:
Ibid.

“healthful wonderland”:
Ibid., 4.

“Every tale I have”:
Ibid., 5.

“I could not have”:
Ibid., 8.

“Never once did I”:
Ibid., 20.

“horribly thin”: Letters,
328.

“a sudden quelling smell”: OoA,
161.

“twelve or fifteen yards”:
Ibid.

“was a declaration of ”:
Ibid., 162.

“the lions or family”: Letters,
365.

“gets just as much”:
Ibid., 367.

“Who can judge…I myself think that”:
Ibid., 371–72.

“being let down”:
Ibid., 348.

“Oh yes,
vive la
”:
Elizabeth Harlan,
George Sand,
2004.

“accompanied, unfortunately…by his”: Letters,
352.

“fine desperado”:
James Fox,
White Mischief,
1982, 33.

“the fastest gun in”:
Bunny Allen to Mary Lovell, 1986, Mary Lovell Archive.

“I knew her very”:
Genesta Hamilton,
A Stone’s Throw,
1986, 92.

“a wonderful person without”:
Errol Trzebinski,
Silence Will Speak,
1977, 215–16.

“so she is pretty…Beryl and I could”:
Lovell,
Straight on Till Morning,
53.

“Beryl would never have”:
Ibid., 312.

“She was always up”:
Trzebinski,
The Lives of Beryl Markham,
95.

“I was so sorry”:
Lovell,
Straight on Till Morning,
56–7.

“dressed like Solomon in”:
Ibid., 58.

“the most momentous occasion”: East African Standard,
June 30, 1928.

“absolute despair”: Letters,
361.

“It is true that”: The Times,
June 29, 1929.

“old illness”: Letters,
214.

“We could have done”:
Thurman,
Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen,
323.

“You will be the”:
Trzebinski,
Silence Will Speak,
182.