Kate Chopin Biography

American author Kate Chopin (1850–1904) wrote about a hundred short stories and two novels in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women.

Her short stories were well received in her own time and were published by America's most prestigious magazines—the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Young People, Youth's Companion, the Century, Vogue, and others. Her stories appeared also in her two published anthologies, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). A third anthology, A Vocation and a Voice, did not appear as a separate volume until long after her death.

Chopin's early novel At Fault (1890) was not much noticed by the public, but The Awakening (1899) attracted a firestorm of attention. Critics called it morbid, disagreeable, vulgar, trite, sordid, and disturbing. There is no evidence that the book was banned in Chopin's hometown of St. Louis, despite what some books and web sites claim, but in 1902, the Evanston, Illinois, Public Library removed it from its open shelves.

For some years Chopin's fiction was mostly forgotten, but in the 1920s her short stories began to be included in anthologies, and little by little people again became aware of her work. In the 1930s a Chopin biography appeared which praised her short fiction but condemned The Awakening. In the 1950s readers discovered that the novel speaks powerfully to their times. And after 1969, when a biography sympathetic to The Awakening was published—along with an edition of her complete works—Kate Chopin became known throughout the world.

Today her work appears in countless editions and translations and is embraced by people for its sensitive, graceful, poetic depictions of women's lives. The Awakening, "The Storm," "The Story of an Hour," "Désirée's Baby," and other stories have established Chopin as a classic writer who speaks eloquently to contemporary concerns.

About Kate Chopin biographies

The most recent and most influential biography of Kate Chopin is Emily Toth's Unveiling Kate Chopin (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999). Emily Toth earlier published a longer biography, Kate Chopin (New York: Morrow, 1990).

An also important biography is Per Seyersted's Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969).

Out of print today but influential before Per Seyersted's 1969 biography is Daniel Rankin's Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1932.)

The following chronology draws from all three of Kate Chopin's biographers.

1850: Catherine (Kate) O'Flaherty born in St. Louis on February 8, the second child of Thomas O'Flaherty of County Galway, Ireland, and Eliza Faris of St. Louis.

1855-1868: Attends St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, with one year at the Academy of the Visitation.

1855: Her father dies in a railroad accident.

1863: Her beloved French-speaking great grandmother dies; her half brother is captured by Union forces during the Civil War and dies of typhoid fever.

1867-1870: Keeps a commonplace book of essays, poems, diary entries, and copied extracts.

1869: Writes "Emancipation. A Life Fable," her first story.

1870: Marries Oscar Chopin, of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, whose French father had taken the family to Europe during the Civil War. Visits Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and New York, and tours Germany, Switzerland, and France on her wedding trip. Moves to New Orleans, where Oscar establishes a business.

1871-1879: Gives birth to five sons and a daughter.

1879: Moves to Cloutierville, in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, after Oscar closes his business because of hard times and buys a general store in Cloutierville.

1882: Oscar dies of malaria.

1883-1884: Has a romance with a local planter.

1884: Moves with her family to St. Louis.

1885: Her mother dies. Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer, her obstetrician and a family friend, encourages her to write.

1888: Reads Guy de Maupassant.

1889: First published story appears in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

1890: First novel, At Fault, published privately. Completes second novel, Young Dr. Gosse and Théo, but later destroys it.

1890: Becomes active in St. Louis literary and cultural circles.

1891: Writes "A No-Account Creole" and "Beyond the Bayou," and "After the Winter." Five stories appear in regional and national magazines, including Youth’s Companion and Harper’s Young People.

1892: Writes "Ripe Figs," "Ma’ame Pélagie," and "Désirée’s Baby." "At the ’Cadian Ball" appears in Two Tales. Eight other stories published.

1893: Writes "In and Out of Old Natchitoches," "Madame Célestin’s Divorce," "A Matter of Prejudice," "La Belle Zoraïde," and "A Lady of Bayou St. John." "Désirée’s Baby" appears in the first issue of Vogue. Twelve other stories published. Travels to New York and Boston to seek a publisher for a novel and an anthology of stories.

1894: Writes "Lilacs," "The Kiss," and "Her Letters." Begins a diary, "Impressions," which she continues for two years. "The Story of an Hour" and "A Respectable Woman" appear in Vogue, "Tante Cat’rinette" in the Atlantic Monthly, and "A No-Account Creole" and two other stories in the Century. Three other stories published. Houghton Mifflin publishes Bayou Folk, an anthology of Chopin’s stories. Travels to a conference of the Western Association of Writers in Indiana.

1895: Writes "Athénaïse" and "The Falling in Love of Fedora." Twelve stories published.

1896: Writes "A Night in Acadie," "A Pair of Silk Stockings," "Nég Créol," and "A Vocation and a Voice." "Athénaïse" published in the Atlantic Monthly. Five other stories published.

1897: Writes "A Morning Walk." Nine stories published. Way and Williams (of Chicago) publishes A Night in Acadie, another anthology of Chopin’s stories. Her grandmother, Athénaïse Charleville Faris, dies.

1897-1898: Writes The Awakening.

1898: Writes "The Storm."

1899: Story published in the Saturday Evening Post. "In the Confidence of a Story-Writer," an essay, published by the Atlantic Monthly. Herbert S. Stone publishes The Awakening.

1900: Writes "Charlie." Two stories published in Vogue. Herbert S. Stone cancels contract for A Vocation and a Voice, a third anthology of Chopin’s stories.

1902: "A Vocation and a Voice," the title story of Chopin’s proposed third volume of stories, published in the St. Louis Mirror. Last published story appears in Youth’s Companion.

1904: Dies of a brain hemorrhage on August 22.

Biographical question: Can you help with the identity of Mrs. F. M. Estere of 4434 Laclede Avenue of St. Louis and her possible connection with Kate Chopin? If you have any information about Mrs. F. M. Estere, would you please email us?