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Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton
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Random House Publishing Group 2007
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Description
Denys Finch Hatton was adored by women and idolized by men. A champion of Africa, legendary for his good looks, his charm, and his prowess as a soldier, lover, and hunter, Finch Hatton inspired Karen Blixen to write the unforgettable stories in Out of Africa. Now esteemed British biographer Sara Wheeler tells the truth about this extraordinarily charismatic adventurer.
Born to an old aristocratic family that had gambled away most of its fortune, Finch Hatton grew up in a world of effortless elegance and boundless power. Tall and graceful, with the soul of a poet and an athlete’s relaxed masculinity, he became a hero without trying at Eton and Oxford. In 1910, searching for novelty and danger, Finch Hatton arrived in British East Africa and fell in love–with a continent, with a landscape, with a way of life that was about to change forever.
Wheeler brilliantly conjures the mystical beauty of Kenya at a time when teeming herds of wild animals roamed unmolested across pristine savannah. No one was more deeply attuned to this beauty than Finch Hatton–and no one more bitterly mourned its passing when the outbreak of World War I engulfed the region in a protracted, bloody guerrilla conflict. Finch Hatton was serving as a captain in the Allied forces when he met Karen Blixen in Nairobi and embarked on one of the great love affairs of the twentieth century.
With delicacy and grace, Wheeler teases out truth from fiction in the liaison that Blixen herself immortalized in Out of Africa. Intellectual equals, bound by their love for the continent and their inimitable sense of style, Finch Hatton and Blixen were genuine pioneers in a land that was quickly being transformed by violence, greed, and bigotry.
Ever restless, Finch Hatton wandered into a career as a big-game hunter and became an expert bush pilot; his passion that led to his affair with the notoriously unconventional aviatrix Beryl Markham. But Markham was no more able to hold him than Blixen had been. Mesmerized all his life by the allure of freedom and danger, Finch Hatton was, writes Wheeler, “the open road made flesh.”
In painting a portrait of an irresistible man, Sara Wheeler has beautifully captured the heady glamour of the vanished paradise of colonial East Africa. In Too Close to the Sun she has crafted a book that is as ravishing as its subject.
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
04/24/2007
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781588365996
ASIN:
B000QCTMQU
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Sara Wheeler. (2007). Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton. Random House Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Sara Wheeler. 2007. Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton. Random House Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Sara Wheeler, Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton. Random House Publishing Group, 2007.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Sara Wheeler. Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton. Random House Publishing Group, 2007.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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      • value: Biography
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creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Wheeler, Sara
      • bioText: Like Denys Finch Hatton, Sara Wheeler was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. Her books include Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica; Travels in a Thin Country; and Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, all available from the Modern Library. When not traveling, Wheeler lives with her family in London.
      • name: Sara Wheeler
imprint
Random House
publishDate
2007-04-24T00:00:00-04:00
isOwnedByCollections
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title
Too Close to the Sun
fullDescription
Denys Finch Hatton was adored by women and idolized by men. A champion of Africa, legendary for his good looks, his charm, and his prowess as a soldier, lover, and hunter, Finch Hatton inspired Karen Blixen to write the unforgettable stories in Out of Africa. Now esteemed British biographer Sara Wheeler tells the truth about this extraordinarily charismatic adventurer.
Born to an old aristocratic family that had gambled away most of its fortune, Finch Hatton grew up in a world of effortless elegance and boundless power. Tall and graceful, with the soul of a poet and an athlete’s relaxed masculinity, he became a hero without trying at Eton and Oxford. In 1910, searching for novelty and danger, Finch Hatton arrived in British East Africa and fell in love–with a continent, with a landscape, with a way of life that was about to change forever.
Wheeler brilliantly conjures the mystical beauty of Kenya at a time when teeming herds of wild animals roamed unmolested across pristine savannah. No one was more deeply attuned to this beauty than Finch Hatton–and no one more bitterly mourned its passing when the outbreak of World War I engulfed the region in a protracted, bloody guerrilla conflict. Finch Hatton was serving as a captain in the Allied forces when he met Karen Blixen in Nairobi and embarked on one of the great love affairs of the twentieth century.
With delicacy and grace, Wheeler teases out truth from fiction in the liaison that Blixen herself immortalized in Out of Africa. Intellectual equals, bound by their love for the continent and their inimitable sense of style, Finch Hatton and Blixen were genuine pioneers in a land that was quickly being transformed by violence, greed, and bigotry.
Ever restless, Finch Hatton wandered into a career as a big-game hunter and became an expert bush pilot; his passion that led to his affair with the notoriously unconventional aviatrix Beryl Markham. But Markham was no more able to hold him than Blixen had been. Mesmerized all his life by the allure of freedom and danger, Finch Hatton was, writes Wheeler, “the open road made flesh.”
In painting a portrait of an irresistible man, Sara Wheeler has beautifully captured the heady glamour of the vanished paradise of colonial East Africa. In Too Close to the Sun she has crafted a book that is as ravishing as its subject.
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: New York Times Book Review
      • content: "What is it about these untamable men that makes them so alluring? . . . In Finch Hatton, [Sara] Wheeler has found the archetypal wanderer forced to straddle multiple worlds. He embodies the contradictions of the early modern age and, in some ways still, of ours."
      • premium: False
      • source: Vogue
      • content: "A fascinating portrait of . . . a singularly romantic life."
      • premium: False
      • source: Library Journal
      • content: "Highly recommended . . . Wheeler's striking descriptions of East Africa, including Kenya and the Rift Valley, create a rich sense of place and time."
      • premium: False
      • source: Entertainment Weekly
      • content: "Wheeler's fascinating, witty bio reveals her wonderful eye for telling details."
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        January 1, 2007
        A superlative athlete with an enormous capacity for friendship and a chronically underachieving, charismatic loner with eternal wanderlust, Denys Finch Hatton (1887–1931) emerged as an iconic figure in the memoirs of two lovers, Karen Blixen's Out of Africa
        and Beryl Markham's West with the Night
        . In childhood, this earl's son—who would later reject the trappings of worldly success, saw his family fortune depleted, developed a passion for hunting from a nonconformist uncle as well as an appreciation for strong, artistic women like his mother—found Eton a "youthful paradise," says Wheeler, hat made it possible for him "to believe in the African dream." The nonconformist in him was drawn to the freedom the Dark Continent promised; after settling in East Africa, he fought on the WWI battlefield there and later became a hunter shepherding rich clients. Hatton, who died when the plane he was piloting crashed, left no diaries and his inner life remains unknowable, as Wheeler (Cherry
        ) acknowledges, yet in this thoughtful, satisfying work, she masterfully captures his allure through the memories of others and through her deft interpretation of both his East African and British milieus in the tumultuous years surrounding WWI. Photos.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        May 1, 2007
        Denys Finch Hatton may be best known as the character Robert Redford portrayed in "Out of Africa", which was adapted from the book by Finch Hatton's longtime lover Karen Blixen (a.k.a. Isak Dinesen). In this biography, Wheeler ("Travels in a Thin Country") aims "to depict a figure in a landscape, to explore the universal themes threaded through his story and to find out why he was an engine of myth." Freedom and danger charged Finch Hatton's life: he left England for South Africa in 1910 and then for the British East Africa outpost (Kenya) in 1911, became a pilot, served during World War I in Kenya and Iraq, and developed his guiding skills as a big-game hunter. Years after he died in a plane crash, many friendsincluding Prince Edward (later Edward VIII), whom Finch Hatton guided twice on safaristill remembered him as a charming dilettante. Wheeler's striking descriptions of East Africa, including Kenya and the Rift Valley, create a rich sense of place and time. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Libs., IN

        Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        March 1, 2007
        Denys Finch Hatton has achieved a measure of fame as the lover of Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) as portrayed in her memoir " Out of Africa" . Much has been written about their relationship, and the film version, with Robert Redford portraying Finch Hatton, has added to public interest. Wheeler, in a well-written and engrossing biography, focuses on the full span of Finch Hatton's life. He was born into a family of "fallen" British gentry who were, typically, land rich but cash poor. As a youth, he seemed a "golden boy" with a bright future; he was strikingly handsome, a superb athlete, and blessed with immense personal charm. Yet part of that charm was an intriguing but frustrating aloofness. Even in Kenya he found it difficult to sustain commitment, as his prolonged but erratic affair with Blixen illustrated. This thoroughly enjoyable work casts a light on an attractive but enigmatic figure, but a true understanding of him remains tantalizingly out of reach. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

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Denys Finch Hatton was adored by women and idolized by men. A champion of Africa, legendary for his good looks, his charm, and his prowess as a soldier, lover, and hunter, Finch Hatton inspired Karen Blixen to write the unforgettable stories in Out of Africa. Now esteemed British biographer Sara Wheeler tells the truth about this extraordinarily charismatic adventurer.
Born to an old aristocratic family that had gambled away most of its fortune, Finch Hatton grew up in a world of effortless elegance and boundless power. Tall and graceful, with the soul of a poet and an athlete’s relaxed masculinity, he became a hero without trying at Eton and Oxford. In 1910, searching for novelty and danger, Finch Hatton arrived in British East Africa and fell in love–with a continent, with a landscape, with a way of life that was about to change forever.
Wheeler brilliantly conjures the mystical beauty of Kenya at a time when teeming herds of wild animals roamed...
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Too Close to the Sun The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton
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The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton
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      • description: History / Africa / General
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