Chopin received a formal education at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis. While in school she enjoyed music, reading and writing, and learned French and German so well that she became fluent in both languages. Later in life, Chopin furthered her education by studying biology and anthropology. Chopin was extremely smart and took advantage of her knowledge to write wonderful stories and novels.
In 1870, Chopin married her husband Oscar, a prosperous cotton factor. They enjoyed a 12 1/2 year marriage and Chopin gave birth to 6 children. She dedicated her life to her family and took on a role of dutiful wife, although she was warned against this. Her husband died in 1882 of swamp fever and Chopin was left to raise the family alone.
In 1888, partly out of want and partly out of need, Chopin began writing fiction. She wrote twenty pieces of fiction - three short stories and six novels, At Fault, Bayou Folk, A Night in Acadie, The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, A Kate Chopin Miscellany, and The Awakening. The one book that made the most impact was The Awakening. The book was censured both locally and nationally for its "poisonous and positively unseemly" theme (Dictionary of Literary Biography, V. 78, 91). St. Louis literary refused to review the novel and the local library removed it from circulation. Chopin also suffered critical abuse and public denunciation as an immoralist and because of this novel, she was refused membership in the St. Louis Fine Arts Club. The reaction to this novel almost caused Chopin to stop writing entirely.
Unfortunately, what Chopin never knew was that this book was extraordinary. Because of this novel Chopin was later recognized as a "pioneering American realist" (Dictionary of Literary Biography, V. 78, 109). Like William Blake, Chopin was interested in innocence and experience, and both of these themes run within this book. It was this book, though after her death, that made her famous and made her loved.
Chopin gave a great deal of thought to important issues. She was involved in the idea of an independent woman and was encouraged not to become a "useless" wife. Chopin also questioned Catholicism's implicit authoritarianism, which encouraged women to be submissive to their husbands.
Kate Chopin died in August of 1904 of a cerebral hemorrhage. She was an incredible and talented writer. She wrote about real issues and real feelings. Unfortunately, like many others, Kate Chopin was never recognized for these talents until it was too late.