Karen Blixen - Isak Dinesen home

Question 90: Encylopedia version of her syphilis?

Q.  Are you aware of the recently published article about Karen Blixen in an encyclopedia? This article makes the following statement about Bror Blixen: "As a husband he was a disaster, and in the first year of marriage passed on syphilis (of the spine, tabes dorsalis) to his young wife. She struggled with its blight all her life, often suffering intensely from its secret and violent assaults on her body, particularly in her last years."

A.   Karen Blixen's doctors did not find evidence that she suffered from tabes dorsalis, or late syphilis--although they tested her for many years. The article you mention seems to have used inaccurate sources.

Karen Blixen did suffer from a limited episode of syphilis contracted in the first year of her marriage; her doctors and family were aware that she had contracted the disease from her husband.

Copyright © 2004 by Linda Donelson. All rights reserved