(1851-1904)

Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, MO. On her mother's side she inherited an aristocratic French background. Her father was a wealthy railroad man. Kate married Oscar Chopin, a cotton broker, in 1870, when she was twenty. From 1879 until 1882, when he died, leaving her with six young children, Kate lived on the Chopin plantation in Natchitoches Parish, where she became acquainted with the Creole way of life.
In the 1890's, back home in St. Louis, Kate hosted a literary club (which she referred to as her Thursday salon), where she was quite successful with her own writings. None of her books were ever banned, and the only books of hers that were ever removed from the St. Louis Public Library were worn out from being read.
At the St. Louis World's fair on August 20, 1904, Kate experienced of a cerebral hemorrhage and died two days later.

A list of Kate Chopin's writings:
"If It Might Be" (a poem, her first published writing) 1889
"Wiser Than God" and "A Point at Issue" (two short stories) 1889
At Fault, first novel (self-published) 1890
Young Dr. Grosse (rejected many times, destroyed) 1890
"DesireeÕs Baby" (Vogue published this collection of short stories) 1893
Bayou Folk (23 stories and sketches; DesireeÕs Baby" was one of them) 1894
A Night in Acadie (21 stories and sketches) 1897
The Awakening (her masterpiece) 1899
"The Storm" 1899
A Vocation and a Voice (rejected, finally published posthumously) 1991