by Gena Messersmith

Created on: March 19, 2008

Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1850 of an Irish and French descent in St. Louis, Missouri. Kate was blessed by having many female mentors throughout her childhood. There were many strong and independent widows in her family and she was further influenced by the intellectual nuns of her school who taught Kate to live a "life of the mind as well as the life of the home." Her father, Thomas O'Flaherty, was an Irish immigrant who was very successful in many business ventures. After his death, Kate will be educated by her great-grandmother. She taught Kate music, history, and French. She also stressed the need to live life "clearly and fearlessly." These are the feminists Kate will grow up to love, respect and immulate.

At the age of 19, Kate marries Oscar Chopin. They established their home in New Orleans and she gave birth to her first child. Unfortunately soon after Chopin's business fails and he moves Kate to his family's plantations in Natchitoches Parish. This is where Kate becomes acquainted with the Creole Community of which she will write. Three years later Oscar is dead from swamp fever and she and her children must return to St. Louis to live with her mother. Less than a year after her return to St. Louis, Kate's mother dies and leaves Kate grief-stricken. Somehow Kate manages to pull herself together and she realizes she must earn a living. This is the beginning of her writing career.

Chopin wrote for over a decade and was very popular. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive and intelligent women. Certainly women of the time could not get enough of Chopin's work. It was not until her novel "The Awakening" that her popularity waned. This novel was maligned primarily by male reviewers and many women's clubs within the St. Louis area defended the novel and even asked Chopin to speak at their clubs about said novel.

To state that Kate Chopin is a positive influence for feminists is an understatement. She not only influenced women of her time and future times but was a visionary as well. Her novels certainly still reflect women's lives and feelings in the 20th and 21st centuries. She was a feminist who did what she had to in order to raise a family and make a living. She did not back down in the face of adversary and she is a woman to be admired to this day.

Learn more about this author, Gena Messersmith.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.