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Born Catherine O’Flaherty on July 12, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri.  In 1855, her father, Thomas O’Flaherty died suddenly, and so, at five years old, Kate was forced to reshape her concept of herself and her world, which at that time largely revolved around the father figure as the center of the household. After her father’s death, Kate’s family included her widowed mother, her widowed grandmother and her widowed great-grandmother.

In June, 1870, Kate married Oscar Chopin of New Orleans, a Creole cotton broker, and quite soon after her marriage and subsequent move to New Orleans, Louisiana, she gave birth to her first son, Jean, in May, 1871.

During the 1870s, she fulfilled the social responsibilities and obligations of a prominent young wife, and bore five more children. However, Oscar was a very forward thinking man, who encouraged Kate to write, and think for herself.  By all accounts, they were very happy together. When he died suddenly in 1882 Kate was devastated.  Two years after his death, she took her children and moved back to St. Louis to be near her mother and relatives. Soon after this move, though, her mother died, ending their very close relationship.

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Her book The Awakening was published in 1899 allowing her to finally come into her own as a novelist. Ironically, it marked the end of her literary career. America proved unprepared for such a book, or for Kate Chopin, who had the audacity to write about woman’s emotional and sexual needs. Such matters were not discussed in 1899.  She was criticized and ostracized for her work and she took the public’s reaction very hard.  She never got over being misunderstood.  In 1904, Kate Chopin died in St. Louis.

Read our book review
of The Awakening.

For more books by and about Kate Chopin,
please visit Amazon.com’s Chopin pages.