In 1889, Kate Chopin, 39-year-old widow and mother of 6 children, began her writing career. She turned to writing at this late age partly, it is believed, to alleviate her unhappiness after losing both her husband and her mother, and partly as a way to support her family. She quickly gained a reputation for herself and her stories and first novel were very well received by the critics and the public. But in 1899 The Awakening was published and things changed. The book was judged not on its literary merits but on its subject matter: a woman's challenge of the social and sexual conventions of society. It was deemed highly inappropriate and Chopin was harshly condemned. Luckily, with the passage of time, that judgement was overturned as interest in the book was renewed and it is now hailed as a classic of American literature.

Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty in 1850 in St Louis, Missouri. Her father was an Irish immigrant and businessman and her mother was from a wealthy French Creole family. After her father died when she was 5, Kate was raised by her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, all three of them widows. Kate grew into a lively and independent woman, probably due in part to this wealth of strong female role models, and remained so after she married Oscar Chopin at age 19 in 1870. After a honeymoon in Europe, the couple lived in New Orleans, spending their summers in Grand Isle on the Gulf of Mexico. Kate had 6 children and by most accounts was happy in her marriage to Oscar.

In 1879, after a business failure Oscar and Kate moved to Cloutierville, Louisiana. Four years later Oscar died of swamp fever and Kate, left in debt, briefly took over her husband's business duties before returning to St. Louis to live with her family. Soon after her mother's death in 1885 Kate began writing. Three short stories came out in 1889 and then her first novel, At Fault, in 1890, followed by a collection of stories, Bayou Folk, in1894. After the scandal of The Awakening Kate's interest in writing dwindled, some believe as a direct result of the criticism she received. Others maintain she was not daunted by the book's failure, and continued to write until she was not well enough to do so. In either case, she left the world a lasting legacy, one the world was just not quite ready for in her time.

Chopin died in 1904 from a brain hemorrhage.

Advertisement:

Articles About Chopin, Kate

Sunset Grand Isle, LA - A visit to the setting of The Awakening	November 27, 2007
Grand Isle, a three hour drive south of New Orleans, is on the outermost shore of Louisiana. The drive takes quite some time since the winding narrow road is accessible by only two cars at a time. The slow pace gives you a chance to pass a rather scenic view of bayou life. Small towns, small homes, and bait shops line the side of the road, a land full of seafood restaurants and fishing gear to buy or rent.
Footprints in Cloutierville	November 27, 2007
If you didn't know Kate Chopin had lived there for a time, you might never have heard of or driven through Cloutierville with a second glance. Located along the Cane River in Natchitoches Parish in Northwest Louisiana, Cloutierville (pronounced Cloochyville) is approximately 260 miles from New Orleans.