Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, to an Irish immigrant father and a French Creole mother. After her father's death when she was five, she was raised in a household of strong women, including her great-grandmother, who told her stories in French. She married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and lived in New Orleans and rural Louisiana, experiences that would provide the rich settings for her fiction. After Oscar's death in 1882 left her with six children and significant debt, she returned to St. Louis and began writing to support her family. This author hub collects 1 work in the Canon Compass ranking, led by The Awakening.