Kate Chopin, author of "The Story of an Hour"

Kate Chopin was born Kate O'Flaherty in 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri (Clarke 1). Chopin's mother was of French extraction and the young Kate grew up in a bilingual household. Chopin's household was also bicultural, encompassing both the cultures of north and south: both supporters of slavery and anti-slavery advocates lived in Missouri; Chopin's family kept slaves and her half-brother fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War (Clarke 1). Kate's father was killed in a railroad accident when she was young, a feature which Chopin was later to deploy in "The Story of an Hour" in which the heroine Mrs. Mallard falsely -- and with surprising joy -- believes that her husband has been killed in a train wreck (Clarke 1).

Chopin married her husband Oscar Chopin when she was twenty. After a tour of Europe, the Chopins settled...
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