Dec 17, 2009

The Awakening | Author Biography

Kate Chopin was born Katie O’Flaherty in 1850 in St. Louis to an Irish father and a French mother. Her father died in a train crash in 1855. Kate was taught and greatly influenced by her maternal great-grandmother who was an independent, free thinker. She taught Kate through storytelling, in both English and French. Additionally, Kate attended the prestigious Sacred Heart Academy, which promoted intelligence and independent thinking. Kate began her lifelong love of reading and writing there.

In 1861 the Civil War began, and Kate, after ripping down a Union flag posted in front of her home, became known as St. Louis “Littlest Rebel.” During the course of the war, Kate lost her brother, her great-grandmother, and her best friend. She later wrote war stories about loss, grief, terror, and fear. She became preoccupied with death.

Kate Chopin

Kate graduated in 1868 and “came out” to the debutante scene where she was praised for her beauty and cleverness. She, however, hated the life that took her away from reading, writing, and thinking, and she particularly hated the constricting clothes that society women were forced to wear. Despite her inner rebelliousness, she married Oscar Chopin in 1870, moved to New Orleans, and had six children. She loved her husband and children but felt engulfed by her life. She became well known for taking long solitary walks (which scandalized the townspeople).

Oscar died in 1882, and Kate had an affair with a married man named Albert Sampite who later appeared in many of her major works as a character called “Alcee.” She moved back to St. Louis in 1884, and after her mother died in 1885, Kate took up writing more seriously. Her publishing debut came in 1889 with a poem titled “If It Might Be.” Her first novel, titled At Fault, was published in 1890, but national recognition did not come until her first national publication in 1894, a collection of short stories titled Bayou Folk.

Kate’s favorite writer was Guy de Maupassant and like him, much of Kate’s fiction was considered scandalous. Nobody, however, denied her talent. She was a prolific and much published writer; she wrote short stories, poems, essays, and novels. Even the bad reviews for The Awakening did not hurt Kate’s literary reputation. In 1900 she was included in the first edition of Who’s Who in America, and she continued to have many admirers. However she was deeply wounded by the negative reviews and by people’s lack of understanding. She wrote less often after that. Kate died in 1904 after spending the day at the St. Louis World’s Fair.

Kate Chopin was a woman ahead of her time. In the 1960s, with the advent of feminism Kate Chopin was resurrected, and The Awakening is considered to be one of the first feminist books.