Bayou Folk

Best known for her novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin (1851-1904) established her literary reputation with short stories about life in rural Louisiana during the late nine-teenth century. After her 1870 marriage to Oscar Chopin, a Creole cotton trader and commission merchant, she lived in and around New Orleans for more than a decade until her husband's death in 1882. During these years, Chopin became acquainted with Creoles, Cajuns, and newly freed blacks. When Oscar Chopin died he was nearl...