Biography & Contribution to Literature

Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1851 in St. Louis to Thomas O’Flaherty and Eliza Faris. Her father was killed in a car accident when she was five, resulting in her being raised by her single mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She grew up in a household full of loving, intelligent and independent women who shaped her views on female identity. While at the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, she become well-read in English and French authors of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. She was also fluent in both English and French languages.

Two years after graduation, she married Oscar Chopin at the age of nineteen in 1870. She moved with Oscar to New Orleans where she became very familiar with the Cajun and Creole cultures. Chopin raised five children while Oscar tended to his factory business. Oscar’s family business collapsed by 1879 and he died shortly after from swamp fever in January 1883. Upon the death of her husband, Chopin moved her family back to her hometown of St. Louis to live with her mother. At the age of 39, she began her illustrious writing career.

Her views on women’s sexual desires and to challenge patriarchal rules were present throughout her writings. She also drew upon her experience and knowledge of Cajun and Creole cultures in her writings. Chopin often wrote on impulse and finishing most of her writings within a day. Chopin’s most notable work of fiction is her 1899 novel, The Awakening. Here Chopin addresses female desires, unhappy marriages and divorce, which were themes not easily accepted by society at the time. Her writings were often published in magazines, such as, Vogue and the Century.

By her death from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 53, Chopin had published two novels and written over one hundred short stories. Even though Chopin’s short stories were not noticed in the early 21^st century, she is now considered an influential feminist American author of the late nineteenth century.

Novels:

At Fault, 1890

Bayou Folk, 1894

A Night in Acadie, 1897

The Awakening, 1899

Short Stories:

"The Storm"
"At the 'Cadian Ball"
"The Story of an Hour"
"Désirée's Baby"
"A Pair of Silk Stockings"
"A Respectable Woman"
"Athénaïse"

"A No-Account Creole"
"A Point at Issue!"
"A Vocation and a Voice"
"Beyond the Bayou"
"Charlie"
"Fedora"
"Her Letters"
"Lilacs"
"Madame Célestin's Divorce"
"Ripe Figs"

"For Marse Chouchoute"
"The Maid of Saint Phillippe"
"Doctor Chevalier's Lie"
"The Return of Alcibiade"
"La Belle Zoraïde"
"At Chênière Caminada"
"A Sentimental Soul"
"Her Letters"
"Odalie Misses Mass"
"Dead Men's Shoes"
"Madame Martel's Christmas Eve"
"Nég Créol"
"Suzette"
"The Locket"
"The Godmother"

Gale Biography in Context. 1 December 2000. 30 November 2011 <http://ezp.tccd.edu:2048/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=true&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=GALE|00000000MROB&documentId=GALE|K1603000607&mode=view>.

Krupat, Arnold and Jeanne Campbell Reesman. "The Norton Anthology of American Literature." Krupat, Arnold and Jeanne Campbell Reesman. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2007. 529-531.

Werlock, Abby H.P., ed. "Chopin, Kate." The Facts on File Companion to the American Novel. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts on File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=CANov0192&SingleRecord=True.