Born this day in 1851: Kate Chopin (1851–1904), novelist and short-story writer best known for The Awakening, a frank novel about the sexual and artistic awakening of a young woman.
Kate
Chopin was born Kate O’Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, and was educated in
Catholic school. She knew both French and German and read widely European
literature. She was also a very talented pianist. She moved to Louisiana after
marrying Oscar Chopin, a New Orleans cotton broker, in 1870. The couple had six
children.
After her husband’s death in 1882 she returned to Missouri
and began supporting her family by writing. She wrote more than one hundred
short stories, which appeared in publications such as Vogue and the Atlantic
Monthly and were later collected in two volumes. For many of her stories
she drew on the Creole and Acadian cultures she experienced during her years in
Louisiana. She was sometimes lumped in with the “local color” writers, but her
stories did not resort to the stereotypes or sentimentality typical of such a
designation.
Her career pretty much came to a close with the
publication of her second novel—and her greatest work. The public was
scandalized by the sensual portrayal of a young wife’s artistic and sexual
blossoming in The Awakening. Years
after Chopin’s death the novel was rediscovered and given the recognition it
deserved, not only for the writing itself, but for the early feminist themes it
portrayed.
Read The Awakening
and some short stories by Chopin, including “Desiree’s Baby,” for free here.
I welcome your feedback!
React, comment, subscribe below.
