Katherine O'Flaherty was born on the 8th February 1850 in St Louis, Missouri to parents of French and Irish descent.
At age 5, she was sent to the Sacred Heart Academy and, apart from a 2 year period at home when her father died, remained there until graduating in 1868. Whilst there she began writing and became an avid reader of almost anything that crossed her path.
Kate married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and the couple moved to New Orleans, and later to the rural setting of Cloutierville, Louisiana to raise their 6 children.
In 1882 her husband died leaving her in a deep trench of debt. Despite her best efforts to turn the businesses around they were sold, and she moved the family back to St Louis and the financial help of her mother. Sadly, her mother died within the year. Kate, now struggling with depression, pushed herself to write and gained a local reputation as a writer of short stories that captured the local color and vibrancy of her surroundings.
By the early 1890's her short stories were published nationally. With this widespread audience also came negative reviews, controversy, and cries of immorality as themes such as interracial relationships, the rights of women and other burning issues of the day were written about.
Despite the criticism, which unnerved her, she continued to write though in the main her works, around 100 short stories and two novels, were not attributed with any literary worth.
Kate Chopin died from a brain haemorrhage in St Louis Missouri on the 22nd of August 1904. She was 54.
For much of the 20th Century her work was forgotten and out of print. It was only in early 1970's, with the rise of feminism and the call for a more just society that she was given the status her works had long described and shone a literary light at. She is now safely revered as one of America's great authors.
