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Kate Chopin (1851–1904)

Author of The Awakening

Includes the names: K. Chopin, Kate Chopin, chopin Kate Chopin, 1851-1904 Kate O'Flaherty Chopin

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Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8, 1851. Although she was brought up in a wealthy and socially elite Catholic family, Chopin's childhood was marred by tragedies. Her father was killed in a train accident when Chopin was just four years old, and in the following years she also lost her older brother, great-grandmother, and half-brother. In 1870, at the age of 19, she married Oscar Chopin, the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. The couple had seven children together, five boys and two girls, before Oscar died of swamp fever in 1883. The following year, Chopin packed up her family and moved back to St. Louis to be with her mother, who died just a year later. To support herself and her family, Chopin started to write. Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890. Her most famous work, The Awakening, inspired by a real-life New Orleans woman who committed adultery, was published in 1899. The book explores the social and psychological consequences of a woman caught in an unhappy marriage in 19th century America, is now considered a classic of the feminist movement and caused such an uproar in the community that Chopin almost entirely gave up writing. Chopin did try her hand at a few short stories, most of which were not even published. Chopin died on August 22, 1904, of a brain hemorrhage, after collapsing at the World's Fair just two days before. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from The Awakening… (more)
The Awakening 8,945 copies, 177 reviews
The Awakening and Selected Stories 1,150 copies, 15 reviews
A Vocation and a Voice: Stories 183 copies, 2 reviews
At Fault 117 copies, 2 reviews
Desiree's Baby [short story] 52 copies, 6 reviews
Portraits 42 copies
Bayou Folk 26 copies, 3 reviews
The Storm 23 copies, 2 reviews
A Night in Acadie 12 copies, 1 review
Classic Women's Short Stories 11 copies, 1 review
The Locket [short story] 10 copies, 5 reviews
Uyanış 6 copies
The Kiss [short story] (Author) 6 copies, 1 review
La culpa 5 copies
Virgumine 4 copies
Regret 3 copies, 1 review
L'Eveil 2 copies
L'EVEIL 2 copies
No title 2 copies
O Beijo 2 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (Contributor, some editions) 897 copies, 7 reviews
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (Contributor) 722 copies, 3 reviews
Great Short Stories by American Women (Contributor) 398 copies, 5 reviews
Women & Fiction: Short Stories By and About Women (Contributor) 358 copies, 7 reviews
The Treasury of American Short Stories (Contributor) 262 copies, 1 review
The Signet Classic Book of Southern Short Stories (Contributor) 120 copies, 1 review
Norton Introduction to the Short Novel (Contributor, some editions) 97 copies, 1 review
A Treasury of American Horror Stories (Contributor) 93 copies, 2 reviews
American Fantastic Tales: Boxed Set (Contributor) 91 copies, 2 reviews
American Short Stories (Contributor, some editions) 90 copies
The American Fantasy Tradition (Contributor) 89 copies, 2 reviews
The Penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women (Contributor) 79 copies, 1 review
New Orleans Noir 2: The Classics (Contributor) 37 copies, 3 reviews
Medusa's Daughters (Contributor) 31 copies
Stories To Get You Through The Night (Contributor) 31 copies
Great Classic Stories II: Eighteen Unabridged Classics (Contributor, some editions) 13 copies
Classic American Short Stories [2016] (Contributor) 11 copies, 3 reviews
Great Classic Mysteries II (Contributor) 7 copies, 1 review
Representative American Short Stories (Contributor) 5 copies, 1 review
Enjoying Stories (Contributor) 2 copies
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Short biography
Katherine O’Flaherty was the daughter of an Irish immigrant father and a French-Creole mother. She was educated at the St. Louis Sacred Heart Academy and then made a debut into Southern society. In 1870, she married Oscar Chopin, a cotton trader from Louisiana, and the couple had six children. Widowed in 1882, and needing to support herself and her young children, Kate Chopin began to write sketches of her former plantation life, which appeared in periodicals such as Bayou Folk. These received immediate acclaim, as did her first novel At Fault (1890). Kate Chopin published two novels and about 100 short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction was set in Louisiana and her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. Her short stories were most popular in her own day and appeared in some of America's most prestigious magazines. After her death her work was temporarily forgotten, but then in the 1920s her short stories began to appear in anthologies, and the public and literary scholars again began to take notice of her.
Disambiguation notice

LibraryThing Early Reviewers Alum

Kate Chopin's book The Banned Books Compendium: 32 Classic Forbidden Books was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Kate Chopin's book New Orleans Noir: The Classics was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

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