Writers of Today; Isak Denison
- Series
- Writers of Today
- Episode
- Isak Denison
- Producing Organization
- Potomac Films
- Contributing Organization
- Thirteen WNET (New York, New York)
- Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/75-15p8d262
- NOLA Code
- WROT
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- Description
- Episode Description
- With interviewer Robert Richman, director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Isak Dinesen talks about poetry and storytelling, and points out their similarities and differences. Through references to and excerpts from Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, the two discuss her exceptional ability to paint word pictures, the effects she attempts to achieve in her writing, and the methods she uses to achieve them. At the conclusion of the episode, the author tells the story of "Blue Eyes" in which a sailor's wife steals the "eyes" from the bow of her husband's ship. The ship crashes and the sailor is killed. Isak Dinesen is the nom de plume of Karen Dinesen, Baronesse Blixen, born in Denmark in 1885. Of her life, the Baronesse says: "I grew up near the sea in the country I studied painting in Copenhagen and later in Paris and Rome, and had much fun. I had a few short stories and a little marionette comedy published. In 1914, I married my cousin, Baron Blixen, and went with him to British East Africa (Kenya) where my family bought a big coffee plantation for us. In 1921 I got a divorce from my husband and took over the management of the farm myself. To my mind, the life of a farmer in the East African highlands is near to an ideal existence. I began to write there to amuse myself in the rainy season. My native servants took a great interest in my work, believing that I was attempting to write a new sort of Koran, and used to come and ask me what Goi had now inspired me to write. Unfortunately, when coffee prices dropped, I had to give up my farm, in 1931." Since returning to Denmark, the Baronesse has lived at her ancestral home in Rungstedlund, near Elsinore in northeastern Denmark. In 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, a book titled Ways of Retribution, ostensibly written by "Pierre Andrezel," was published in Copenhagen. It became a bestseller in Denmark, where the Nazi censors evidently considered it a typical Gothic romance with no political overtones. Only after it was published in English as Angelic Avengers was it revealed as the work of Isak Dinesen. The Danish underground, of course, had immediately recognized it as a resistance work whose corrupt villain was the personification of the Nazi occupation forces. In addition to Seven Gothic Tales (written in English and first published in 1934), Out of Africa (written in Danish, first published in 1938), and Winter's Tales, the Baronesse has written a number of uncollected short stories that have appeared in this country in The Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies Home Journal. Episode Running Time: 29:06 (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Series Description
- Designed to explore the important literary expressions of outstanding contemporary authors, Writers of Today is a series of filmed interviews with novelists, poets, and dramatists. The interviews concentrate on the goals, abilities, and preferences of the writers, their reasons for writing, how and what they write, and the background and environmental influences on their particular modes of expression. Writers of Today consists of 17 half-hour episodes that were distributed by NET in four different seasons in 1956-1957, 1959-1960, 1962, and 1963. The first season was seven episodes, and every subsequent season included some episodes from the previous seasons and some new episodes. The fact that episodes were repeated multiple times and there was no consistent numbering of episodes between seasons makes it difficult to create logical or accurate episode numbers, which is why there are not any episode numbers in these records. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Broadcast Date
- 1962-00-00
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Talk Show
- Topics
- Literature
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Guest: Dinesen, Isak
Host: Richman, Robert
Producer: Read, Nicholas
Producing Organization: Potomac Films
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_5137 (WNET Archive)
Format: Digital Betacam
Generation: Master
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2341684-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2341684-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Master
Color: B&W
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2341684-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Master
Color: B&W
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2341684-4 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Master
Color: B&W
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “Writers of Today; Isak Denison,” 1962-00-00, Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 7, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-15p8d262.
- MLA: “Writers of Today; Isak Denison.” 1962-00-00. Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 7, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-15p8d262>.
- APA: Writers of Today; Isak Denison. Boston, MA: Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-15p8d262