Beryl Markham

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , officially Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint Exupéry , was an aristocrat French writer, poet and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the U.S. National Book Award. He is best... remembered for his novella The Little Prince and for his lyrical aviation writings, including Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars. He was a successful commercial pilot before World War II, working airmail routes in Europe, Africa and South America. At the outbreak of war he joined the Armée de l'Air , flying reconnaissance missions until France's armistice with Germany in 1940. After being demobilized from the French Air Force he voyaged to the United States to convince its government to quickly enter the war against Nazi Germany. Following a 27-month hiatus in North America during which he wrote three of his most important works, he joined the Free French Air Force in North Africa although he was far past the maximum age for such pilots and in declining health.
more

Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke , , née Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen. She also wrote... under the pen names Osceola and Pierre Andrézel. Blixen wrote works in Danish, French, and English. Blixen is best known for Out of Africa, her account of living in Kenya, and one of her stories, Babette's Feast, both of which have been adapted into highly acclaimed, Academy Award-winning motion pictures. Prior to the release of the first film, she was noted for her Seven Gothic Tales, for which she is also known in Denmark. Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, described it as "a mistake" that Blixen was not awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature during the 1930s. Karen Dinesen was the daughter of writer and army officer Wilhelm Dinesen, and Ingeborg Westenholz, and was the sister of Thomas Dinesen. Her father's family, which she saw rarely, was of aristocratic background and held the lordship of Katholm. Her mother came from a wealthy Unitarian bourgeois merchant family.
more