Isak Dinesen is one of the pseudonyms of Karen Christence Dinesen, Baroness Blixen-Finecke (1885–1962). Generally known as Karen Blixen (the other pseudonyms being Osceola, Tania Blixen, and Pierre Andrézel), she is most remembered for her memoir, Out of Africa (1937), which recounts her years in Kenya. It is a poignant tale of her beloved farm and coffee plantation; the loss of her longtime lover, the English big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton; and the erosion of the simple African way of life that she deeply admired. It was lavishly adapted for the screen by producer-director Sydney Pollack, winning seven Academy Awards, including for Best Picture. It starred Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Klaus Maria Brandauer, the latter two having been nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.
Born in Rungsted, Denmark, Blixen married her cousin, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, in 1914. They moved to Kenya, where they owned and operated a coffee plantation and became big-game hunters. They were separated in 1921 and divorced four years later. She continued to run the plantation after their separation for another decade, finally forced to give it up due to drought, poor management, and the plummeting price of coffee. Having also lost her lover, who died when his plane crashed in 1931, she returned to Denmark and settled into a life as a writer.
She began writing short stories for Danish magazines in 1905, but her first book, Seven Gothic Tales, wasn’t published until 1934; it was followed by Out of Africa, Winter’s Tales (1942), Last Tales (1957), and the posthumous Carnival: Entertainments and Posthumous Tales (1977), Daguerreotypes, and Other Essays (1979), and Letters from Africa, 1914–31 (1981). Her only novel, The Angelic Avengers (1944), was written under the Pierre Andrézel byline. Her most famous story is “Babette’s Feast,” written in 1958 and adapted for a Danish film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988.
“The Uncertain Heiress” was first published in the December 10, 1949, issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It was retitled “Uncle Seneca” for its first appearance in book form in Carnival: Entertainments and Posthumous Tales (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1977).