Bror von Blixen-Finecke

Bror Fredrik "Blix" von Blixen-Finecke and his twin brother, Hans Gustaf, were the youngest of seven children born to Baron Fredrik von Blixen-Finecke (1847–1919) and his wife, Countess Clara Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs (1855–1925). Aage Westenholz, Tanne's maternal uncle and family trustee after her father died, turned the farm into a company in 1918 with Aage as the chairman. Blaming the farm's losses on Blix, Aage banned Blix from the farm in the spring of 1920, and by 1921 Tanne and Blixen were separated. They managed Singu, a property at Babati, owned by Blixen's first hunting client Dick Cooper. In 1929, Blixen concentrated on his safari business and became Cooper's East Africa agent. The safari work enabled the Blixens to purchase their own farm at Ndasagu. In 1935, he and "Cockie" divorced, and the following year he married Eva in New York, and they spent their honeymoon together with Ernest Hemingway and his wife Pauline Pfeiffer sailing around Cuba and the Bahamas. Cockie was quoted by Ulf Aschan as saying, "I have never regretted anything — except leaving Blix. He was the love of my life." In March 1938, Eva Dickson von Blixen-Finecke died in a car crash outside Baghdad, on her way back from Calcutta after having been forced to give up her big dream of driving the Silk Road to Beijing. Bror von Blixen-Finecke didn't learn about her death until 28 July 1938, and he was devastated by the news. Blix left Africa for good in 1938, eventually returning to his native Sweden. He died in a 1946 car accident, in which he was a passenger. Von Blixen-Finecke's identical twin, Hans, had died in a plane crash in 1917. == Big-game hunter in Africa ==

Blixen formed Tanganyika Guides Ltd, for professional hunting, in partnership with Philip Percival and Jeff Manley. Blixen and Percival became East Africa's leading hunters. According to Ulf Aschan, "Safaris lasted from one month to three. A meticulous organizer, Blix never left anything to chance. Fly camps, fuel depots, airstrips, provisions, and staff were always laid out well in advance. He would also take time to reconnoiter an area thoroughly beforehand to check on waterholes and general game movements." "Hunting with Blix was a magnificent experience," said Ebba Hamilton, "With his quiet, almost lyrical narrative of what happened around us, he got nature to live like I have never experienced since. Rose Cartwright stated that Blixen was, "An excellent shot, a meticulous organizer, and very good teacher. He was on a par with the best African trackers, and they admired him greatly for his skills and stamina." especially in terms of the character's "cynicism and womanizing". == Writing ==

Bror von Blixen-Finecke was a talented writer; his best-known book was his autobiography African Hunter (1938), long regarded as fine Africana since its translation from Swedish in 1938 by F. H. Lyon. In 1988, St. Martin's Press published a collection of von Blixen-Finecke's letters to family and friends in a book titled Bror Blixen: The Africa Letters. ==In popular culture==

In the film Out of Africa (1985), which is based on Karen Blixen's memoirs of the same name, the role of Bror von Blixen-Finecke is played by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, who also plays his brother Hans. Blix is a central character in the best selling war/thriller/spy novel The Bullet Garden by Stephen Hunter. ==See also==