Karen von Blixen-Finecke (April 7, 1885 - September 7, 1962) was a Danish author. Her first book, Seven Gothic Tales, was published in the US in 1934 under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen. Her second book, now the best known of her works, was Out of Africa, published in 1937, and its success firmly established her reputation as an author. During WWII, when Denmark was occupied by the Germans, she started her only full-length novel, The Angelic Avengers, under another pseudonym, Pierre Andrezel; it was published in 1944. The horrors experienced by the young heroines were interpreted as an allegory of Nazism. Her tales follow a traditional style of storytelling, and most take place against the background of the 19th century or earlier periods. During the 1950s her health deteriorated, and in 1955 she had a third of her stomach removed because of an ulcer. Unable to eat, she died in 1962, at the age of 77. Out of Africa and Babette's Feast, have both been adapted into highly acclaimed, Academy Award-winning motion pictures. Photographed by Pierre Boulat, 1965.